ATTENTION

ATTENTION, a due application of the ear, or the mind, to anything said, or done.

Attention of mind is not properly an act of understanding, but rather of the will, by which it calls the understanding from the consideration of other objects, and directs it to the thing in hand. See UNDERSTANDING and WILL.

Attention, in respect of hearing, is the stretching or straining the membrana tympani, so as to make it more susceptible of sounds, and better prepared to catch even a feeble agitation of the air. Or it is the adjusting the tension of that membrane to the degree of loudness or lowness of the sound we are attentive to. See TYMPANUM. See also HEARING, etc.



The word is compounded of ad, to; and tensio, of tendo, I stretch.

ATTENTION