[ad. (immed. or ult.) L. tactu-s touch, f. ppl. stem of tangĕre to touch: cf. F. tact (14th c. in sense 1), Ger. tact, takt (1619 in sense 4).]
I. 1. The sense of touch; touch. In quot. 1809 transf. [So in L.; F. tact (14th c. in Littré).]
[c. 1200. Vices & Virtues, 17. Ða fif wittes … þat is, visus, auditus, gustus, odoratus, et tactus, þat is ȝesihthe, ȝeherhþe, smac, and smell, and tactþe.]
1651. A. Ross, Arcana Microcosm., II. xxi. 110. Of all the creatures, the sense of tact is most exquisite in man.
1809. Kendall, Trav., III. 102. Such is the delicacy of their [divining or mineral rods’] tact, that the weakest power is sufficient to determine them.
1865. Grote, Plato (1867), II. xxvi. 370. The various Percepta or Percipienda of tact, vision, hearing—sweet, hot, hard, light—have each its special bodily organ.
1881. Le Conte, Sight, 77. Sight is a very refined tact.
b. fig. A keen faculty of perception or discrimination likened to the sense of touch.
1797. W. Tooke, Life Catherine, II. 206. It was from his genius alone that he had seized the character of other nations, and it shews a niceness of tact exceedingly rare.
1802. Coleridge, Lett., to W. Sotheby (1895), 397. You … must needs have a better tact of what will offend that class of readers.
1842. Manning, Serm., ii. (1843), I. 22. To … deaden the keen tact of conscience.
1876. Green, Stray Stud., 120. The popular voice showed a singular historical tact in its mistake.
2. Ready and delicate sense of what is fitting and proper in dealing with others, so as to avoid giving offence, or win good will; skill or judgment in dealing with men or negotiating difficult or delicate situations; the faculty of saying or doing the right thing at the right time. [a. F. tact (Voltaire, 1769).]
[1793. D. Stewart, Outl. Mor. Philos., I. x. § 87 (1855), 48. The use made in the French tongue of the word Tact, to denote that delicate sense of propriety which enables a man to feel his way in the difficult intercourse of polished society.]
1804–6. Syd. Smith, Mor. Philos., xii. (1850), 154. We have begun, though of late years, to use the word tact.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1872), II. I. iv. 22. A most delicate task; requiring tact.
1875. Helps, Ess., Secrecy, 55. Few persons have tact enough to perceive when to be silent, and when to offer you counsel or condolence.
1892. R. B. Brett, in 19th Cent., Jan., 22. That fine instinct in the management of men which is commonly called tact.
1893. ‘Mark Twain,’ Traveling with a Reformer. Now if a man has tact—if a man will exercise diplomacy.
† 3. The act of touching or handling; an instance of this, a touch. Obs. rare. [So in L.]
1801. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), III. 467. I judged from a tact of the southern pulse.
1823. J. Babcock, Dom. Amusem., 64. Others that are harmless in tact.
II. 4. Mus. A stroke in beating time; = BEAT sb.1 4: see also quot. 1891. [= (Germ.) L. tactus, Adam v. Fulda, 1490; Ger. tact, Prätorius, 1619.]
1609. J. Douland, Ornith. Microl., 46. Tact is a successive motion in singing, directing the equalitie of the measure.
1614. T. Ravenscroft, Brief Disc., 20. Tact, Touch or Time, is, a certaine Motion of the hand (whereby the Quantity of Notes and Rests are directed) by an equall Measure.
[1777. R. Donkin, Military Coll., 161. Count Saxe recommends the tact, or marching en cadence.]
1828. Webster, Tact,… formerly the stroke in beating time in music.
1891. Cent. Dict., Tact … in music, a beat or pulse; especially, the emphatic down-beat with which a measure begins; hence, also, a measure.
