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If you hear a lot of things, that's hearing noise If you feel a lot of things, what is that? For example, if you can feel wind brushing against your skin, sunlight on your face, the weight of a blanket on you, that's a lot of what?

Also, I just realised I can't think of a word for it, but is there a better word for "feeling" something that's more specific to the sensation of touch? Using "touching" seems to imply an action, while feeling seems to vague.

Teqa
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  • “Noise” is to “Hearing” as Body is to “Touch”? – Organic Heart Feb 15 '20 at 09:13
  • I'm not sure that "noise" is the best example to use. You may say "sound is to hearing as feel is to touch". Or could it be "as touch is to feel"? You hear a sound and you feel a touch. – WS2 Feb 15 '20 at 09:18
  • You could say "as texture is to touch". You could say "as temperature is to touch". Are you feeling clothes to see how soft they are, or are you feeling a cup of coffee to see whether it is still too hot to drink? I don't believe there's one word that covers all contingencies. – Peter Shor Feb 15 '20 at 14:16
  • Overstimulation works for all the senses; cf. Sensory overload. Also, you could think about it like this . . . For hearing, sound is neutral, music is positive, noise is negative. For touch, texture is neutral, smoothness is positive, scratchiness is negative. – Tinfoil Hat Feb 15 '20 at 16:02
  • Sense verbs, and other words derived from them, have odd grammar and special affordances, since we talk about what we hear, see, and otherwise observe all the time. It's all we've got, in fact, to talk about. – John Lawler Feb 15 '20 at 22:01
  • A noise is an input to hearing. But one's hearing is always on -- there are no earlids -- while one's vision can be shut down. Smell is another involuntary sense, and a smell is precisely analogous to a noise and uses the same structures -- What's that noise/smell? It made a noise/smell. Big/Little noise/smell. Bad/Good noise/smell. – John Lawler Feb 15 '20 at 22:08
  • Touch is a different case because it's unclear what's moving -- the toucher or the touchee. In the case of human contact we tend to use human motion verbs because they're more important and precede the sensation. So a touch might mean a person touched something or something touched a person, and it's likely to be more relevant what kind of touching was involved and by whom (and on whom as well). – John Lawler Feb 15 '20 at 22:12
  • In that case, as sound is input to hearing, what would the input for the physical sensation of touch be called? Scratchiness and smoothness are types of inputs. Sensory overload is self explanatory, but not exactly what I'm looking for. What would a general term encompassing different sensations we feel be known as? I'm thinking "feeling" might be my only real option, but it feels rather vague. @JohnLawler – Teqa Feb 18 '20 at 02:27
  • Yeah, touching is under-represented in terms of special verbs. Feel is general, but it can always be specific to tactile effects. – John Lawler Feb 18 '20 at 02:45

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