Sadism

(based on pornographic novels depicting sexual gratification by inflicting pain and suffering which were written by the "Marquis de Sade")

The opposite of masochism and its almost inevitable companion

The Marquis de Sade, another nomenclature for the Count Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade (1740-1814), had a brief military career before devoting his life to debauchery and perversion.

  • Shortly after his marriage into a wealthy family, de Sade started a series of liaisons with prostitutes, luring them to one of his living quarters for sessions of sexual abuse.
  • After each scandal became public, de Sade was confined to one fortress then another, etc.
  • With each release, he started his pursuits again.
  • As a result of his scandalous crimes, de Sade was sentenced to death in absentia in the 1770s and just barely escaped the guillotine during the French Revolution.
  • While he was in prison, he wrote novels and plays in which he emphasized the sexual compulsions that consumed his own life.
  • Apparently de Sade's printed productions had an underground reputation throughout the 19th century.
  • Before the century ended, the term sadism had become the established word for the sexual perversion in which gratification results with the infliction of pain on other people.
—Based on information from Webster's Word Histories.

For other eponyms, see the Eponymous Words Directory.

leptosadism
A mild form of sadism.
necrosadism
Sexual gratification derived by mutilating corpses.
sadism
1. The gaining of sexual gratification by causing physical or mental pain to other people or the acts that produce such gratification.
2. Being cruel for fun; the gaining of pleasure from causing physical or mental pain to people or animals.
3. Cruelty; great physical or mental cruelty.
4. Etymology: from French sadisme, from Count Donatien A.F. de Sade (1740-1815).

Although he was not a marquis, he is usually now called one. He was notorious for the cruel sexual practices he described in his novels. "Sadist" was first recorded in 1897; "sadistic" is from 1892, and was formed from the German sadistisch.

Further clarification of the term sadism

A sadist delights in cruelty. His pleasure is to inflict mental or physical pain on others.

Loosely speaking, his satisfaction comes simply from watching someone worry or appear apprehensive, or from twisting the tail of a puppy to hear it yelp.

On the other hand, the more serious form of mental aberration from which sadists suffer is founded on sexual gratification, the obtaining of sexual release by inflicting pain on a love object.

—Excerpts from The Story Behind the Word by Morton S. Freeman.
sadistic, sadistically
1. Sexual pleasure obtained by inflicting harm (physical or psychological) on others.
2. Deriving sexual gratification or the tendency to derive sexual gratification from inflicting pain or emotional abuse on others.
3. The tendency to derive pleasure, from cruelty; extreme cruelty.

There once was a masochist who had a strong urge to be beaten and so he demanded that a sadist beat him and to cause as much physical pain as the sadist was capable of doing!

The sadist sadistically responded, "No, not for you!"

Another version of the same "joke"

The difference between a masochist and a sadist is that a masochist will scream: "Hurt me! Hurt me!"

The sadist will grin back sadistically and say: "No, I won't do it!"

sado-masochism, sadomasochism
1. The existence of both sadism and masochism in a person.
2. The practice of deriving sexual pleasure from inflicting pain on another person; as well as, having pain inflicted on oneself by another person.
sado-masochist
Someone who enjoys and indulges in sado-masochism.
sado-masochistic
Relating to or involving sado-masochism.
zoosadism
Cruelty to animals.

Related "sex, sexism, sexual lust, sexual deviation" word units: aphrodi-; -cest-; eroto-; lagneuo-; -lagnia; masochism; porno-; satyr-; sex-; sodom-; whore.


Cross references related to "pain, hurt; suffering, injury" word families: -agra; algesi-; algo-; angina-; dolor-; Masochism; noci-; odyno-; poen-; pono- (toil, work; pain).


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