Subjective
Etymology
From Latin "subiectus" (brought under, placed beneath), from "subicere" — "sub-" (under) plus "iacere" (to throw). The grammatical "subject" is what a sentence is thrown under; the philosophical subject is the experiencing self that everything else is presented to.
adjective · /sub-JEK-tiv/
Depending on a particular mind’s feelings, taste, or vantage point rather than on the thing itself.
What it names
A handle for flagging that a judgment is the speaker’s own experience, not a shared measurement — useful for cooling arguments that pretend to be about facts.
Example
Which wine is "best" is largely subjective; which one is corked is not.
Related idea
Subjective is not the same as arbitrary — your taste is genuinely yours and stable, even if it isn’t universal. Its pair objective claims mind-independence; the honest move is naming which one you actually have.
See also