Why did Alexander Baumgarten use a Greek term for perception in naming aesthetics?

Alexander Baumgarten coined the term aesthetics by borrowing the Greek word for sensory perception, aisthēsis. He utilized this term to define a specific realm of knowledge—which he identified as the domain of poetry—where content is communicated through sensory form.1

By adopting this terminology, Baumgarten sought to challenge the prevailing Rationalist view that sensory experience and imagination were incapable of providing genuine cognition. He argued that poetry offers a unique form of insight that cannot be conveyed through rational reflection alone. In his theory, aesthetic ideas are described as "clear and confused," contrasting them with the "clear and distinct" ideas of reason favored by 17th-century philosophers like Descartes. Consequently, Baumgarten established aesthetics as a distinct philosophical discipline dedicated to the study of this sensory-based cognitive experience.23