instinct

Instinct keeps the -ct- cluster that marks a word taken from Latin rather than worn smooth by French. It is Latin instinctus, "instigation, impulse, inspiration," the past participle of instinguere, "to incite, to impel" — from in-, "into, upon," plus stinguere, "to prick, to goad," from an Indo-European root meaning "to prick, stick, pierce" that also gives English stick, stitch and, at a distance, instigate and distinguish.

So the image underneath is being jabbed into action. English took the word in the early 1400s meaning simply "a prompting," a sense now dead. The animal faculty of intuitive perception is from the mid-1400s, growing directly out of that notion of a natural prompting, and the general sense of a natural tendency only from the 1560s. The Century Dictionary's gloss is worth keeping: instinct is said to be blind, in that either the end is not consciously recognised or the connection of means to end is not understood.

instinct
(n.)
early 15c., "a prompting" (a sense now obsolete), from Old French
instinct
(14c.) or directly from Latin
instinctus
"instigation, impulse, inspiration," noun use of past participle of
instinguere
"to incite, impel," from
in-
"into, in, on, upon" (see
in-
(2)) +
stinguere
"prick, goad," from PIE
*steig-
"to prick, stick, pierce" (see
stick
(v.)).
Meaning "animal faculty of intuitive perception" is from mid-15c., from notion of "natural prompting." General sense of "natural tendency" is first recorded 1560s.
Instinct is said to be blind--that is, either the end is not consciously recognized by the animal, or the connection of the means with the end is not understood. Instinct is also, in general, somewhat deficient in instant adaptability to extraordinary circumstances. [Century Dictionary]
also from early 15c.

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