What is the contemporary meaning of "consensual"? [closed]

Solution 1:

Going by dictionary definitions, consensual can be used both for something related to consent and for something related to consensus. In contemporary usage it is, however, far more often used in the former sense than in the latter. That explains why many people would perceive the OP's use of this term as odd, even though it is not, strictly speaking, incorrect.

Now, what is the difference between consent and consensus? By etymology, one would expect them to be synonyms, and their dictionary definitions don't bring out a clear difference between them, leaving an impression that they are near synonyms. In actual usage, however, consent to X is typically something that is given by a person who is directly affected by X: a patient gives consent to a surgical intervention, one's sexual partner gives consent to a particular sexual act. The word consent is usually used with an assumption that, in the absence of consent, doing X to somebody would be seriously wrong. Consensus, on the other hand, is a method by which a group of people may reach a decision about something, that may or may not affect them directly. It is an alternative to reaching decisions by a formal vote. The members of a university department, for example, may reach by consensus a decision about some policy that affects their students—in such a scenario, consent would be an unusual word to use, even though, perhaps, not entirely incorrect.

Because consensual is, in actual usage, more strongly associated with consent than with consensus, it is inadvisable to use it interchangeably with by consensus.

Solution 2:

Consensual can definitely refer to actions other than sex.

The dictionary definitions make this clear, including no mention of sex in the definitions. If it did not then there would be no need for the word "sex" in "consensual sex". These days there is a lot of discussion about "consensual sex", and most Google hits are in that context. Using the word may create associations with sex in someone's mind. However it is often used in other contexts too - see medical, legal, political and behavioural uses.

As an aside, in the discussion you quote the commenter isn't saying that you are using "consensual" wrong because you are using it in a non-sexual context - he/she is saying you are using it wrong because you are using it to mean "something about which there is a consensus" (i.e. a consensus as to how it should be done), which is not a correct meaning. "Consensual" only means "something that is done with the consent of all parties".

I would rewrite your sentence as

Is there a consensus about how to insert such data into the DB?