Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NO'TION, n. [Fr. from L. notio, from notus, known; nosco, to know.]

1. Conception; mental apprehension of whatever may be known or imagined. We may have a just notion of power, or false notions respecting spirit. Notion and idea are primarily different; idea being the conception of something visible, as the idea of a square or a triangle; and notion the conception of things invisible or intellectual, as the notion we have of spirits. But from negligence in the use of idea, the two words are constantly confounded. What hath been generally agreed on, I content myself to assume under the notion of principles. Newton. Few agree in their notions about these words. Cheyne. That notion of hunger, cold, sound, color, thought, wish or fear, which is in the mind, is called the idea of hunger, cold, &c. Watts.
2. Sentiment; opinion; as, the extravagant notions they entertain of themselves. Addison.
3. Sense; understanding; intellectual power. [Not used.] Shak.
4. Inclination; in vulgar use; as, I have a notion to do this or that.