'pleasure-sensitive' originates from Modern English, specifically the compound of 'pleasure' and 'sensitive', where 'pleasure' referred to enjoyment or delight and 'sensitive' meant capable of feeling or easily affected.

'pleasure' comes from Old French 'plaisir' (or Anglo-French 'plesir') ultimately from Latin 'placēre' meaning 'to please'; 'sensitive' derives from Latin 'sensitivus' (from 'sentire', 'to feel'), which passed into Old French and then Middle/Modern English—these elements were combined in Modern English to form the compound 'pleasure-sensitive'.

Initially, 'pleasure' focused on the idea of causing pleasure or being pleasing and 'sensitive' meant 'able to feel'; over time the compound came to mean 'easily affected by pleasure' or 'highly responsive to pleasurable stimuli' in psychological and descriptive usage.