Let’s take a break now from the Verbal Advantage vocabulary for an exposé of two commonly confused words and one commonly misused word.
What is the distinction between sensual and sensuous? Is there a difference in meaning when you say “sensuous feelings” and “sensual feelings”?
Yes, there is indeed a difference. Sensuous refers favorably to things experienced through the senses: sensuous music, sensuous colors, the sensuous beauty of the forest, the sensuous aroma of fine food. Sensual refers, usually unfavorably, to the gratification of the senses or physical appetites, especially in a self-indulgent or sexual way: the sensual excesses of the glutton, the sensual nightlife of the city; the sensual atmosphere of a singles bar; the sensual cravings of a drug addict. The controversial 1969 bestseller The Sensuous Woman would have been more accurately titled The Sensual Woman because its explicit subject matter concerns the unabashed gratification of sexual desire.
Here’s how you can keep the two words straight: If you mean lovely, pleasurable, or experienced through the senses, use sensuous; if you mean self-gratifying or pertaining to physical desires, use sensual. Sensuous thoughts have a pleasant effect on your senses as well as your mind. Sensual thoughts are erotic, sexually arousing, maybe even lewd.
Here’s a sentence that can help you remember the distinction: The sensuous feeling of silk against her skin filled her with sensual desire.
Now, before that sensuous sentence makes you break out in a sensual sweat, let’s take a quick look at a commonly misused word: comprise. In strict usage, comprise means to include, contain, consist of, be composed of. It should not be used to mean to make up. Do not say the United States is comprised of fifty states, or that fifty states comprise the United States.
The rule for comprise is that “the whole comprises (contains) its parts; the parts compose (make up) the whole.” Therefore you should say the United States comprises (contains or consists of) fifty states, or fifty states compose (constitute or make up) the United States. When you mean “to make up,” use that phrase or compose or constitute. Use comprise only when you mean to include or contain: Our city comprises a million residents; they watched a TV miniseries comprising five episodes; the report comprised three different proposals.
