Formal Definition:
“Imagery is a language used by poets, novelists, and other writers to create images in the mind of the reader. Imagery includes figurative and metaphorical language to improve the reader’s experience through their senses. Tactile imagery specifically relates to imagery through the sense of touch.”
"Tactile." Merriam Webster Dictionary, 20 Feb. 2001, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tactile. Accessed 7 Sept. 2022.
Informal Definition:
Writers use tactile imagery to create the reader's sensation of touch through text. For example, the writer might appeal to the way in which a reader’s skin feels using sensations such as stinging or itchiness, warmth from a fire.
Etymology:
Tactile - 1610s, “perceptible to touch,” from French tactile (16c. ) and directly from Latin tactilis “tangible, that may be touched,” from tactus, past participle of tangere “to touch,” from Proto-Indo-European root *tag - “to touch, handle.” Meaning “of or pertaining to the sense of touch” is attested from 1650s.
"Tactile." Online Etymology Dictionary, 19 Apr. 2017, www.etymonline.com/word/tactile. Accessed 7 Sept. 2022.
Evelyn H.