The most common meanings for these terms today are “according to an individual’s perspective; biased” (subjective) and “regardless of individual perspective; unbiased” (objective), but these meanings, and their opposition, are a relatively recent development.

Objective is from the Latin compound objectus, “something presented (to the mind or sight)”, from ob (”against”) + jacere (”to throw”); the metaphor was that something seen, or presented to the mind, was thrown up against you. Thus objective originally referred to an essentially subjective experience. In English, objective appeared around 1620, and meant “considered in relation to its object”. The object of a sentence is that which is “thrown up against” the action of the subject and verb. The meaning of “unbiased” did not appear until the middle of the 19th century.

Subject is also from Latin, subjectus, “something placed under another”, from sub (”under”) + jacere (”to throw”). Frequently used in reference to subject peoples of the Empire. The subject of a sentence is something “under the control of” the verb, a meaning first found in English in the early 1600’s. Subjective appeared in English in the 1300’s, meaning “something acted upon”; the meaning “existing in the mind” only appeared around 1700, possibly related to the meaning “subject matter” (a meaning borrowed from Aristotle, who spoke of a topic of inquiry as being “under” the inquiry). It was only in the 19th century, a time when the idea of objective vs. subjective ideas were first really developed in Western culture, that the two words objective and subjective encountered each other and were placed in opposition.

Phonosemantically, both of these words seem to encode the progress of an idea from “inside” (”su”) or “outside” (”o”) the mind up to where it bursts in on the consciousness (”b”); this is a doorway (”j”), at which time it moves into the mind (container) itself (”ec”). Interestingly, the subjective source (”su”) is phonosemantically much more active and directed than the objective source (”o”), which may reflect the idea in Western culture that the subconscious is something apart, active, and perhaps dangerous.

Thanks to Adam for suggesting this word of the day.

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