haptics

noun

hap·​tics ˈhap-tiks 

plural in form but singular in construction

1

: the use of electronically or mechanically generated movement that a user experiences through the sense of touch as part of an interface (as on a gaming console or smartphone)

Some video games let players experience simple examples of haptics; … players can feel shudders and jolts through joysticks and steering wheels that are linked to virtual activities like driving vehicles with high-torque motors.

—Anne Eisenberg

Instead the haptics engine motor simulates the feeling of pressing a button.

—Ben Sin

2

medical : a science concerned with the sense of touch

The study of touching behavior is called haptics.

—Bruce M. Rowe and Diane P. Levine

Word History

Etymology

borrowed, with conformation to -ics, from New Latin hapticē "science of touch," noun derivative from feminine of Greek haptikós "able to come into contact with," from haptós "tangible" (verbal adjective of háptein "to fasten," háptesthai "to fasten onto, come into contact with, touch," of uncertain origin) + -ikos -ic entry 1

Note: New Latin hapticē was coined by the English mathematician Isaac Barrow (1630-77) in Lectiones mathematicae XXIII (London, 1685), p. 28. Greek háptein has been traced to Indo-European *h₂ep- "join, fit" (see apt entry 1), with the initial h- accounted for by analogy with other verbs, and the aspiration of derivatives such as haphḗ "touch, grip, kindling" taken as secondary.

First Known Use

1734, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Kids Definition

haptics

noun singular or plural

hap·​tics

ˈhap-tiks

1

: the use of electronically or mechanically generated movement that a user experiences through the sense of touch as part of an interface (as on a gaming console)

2

: a science concerned with the sense of touch

Medical Definition

haptics

noun, plural in form but singular in construction

hap·​tics -tiks 

: a science concerned with the sense of touch