contentment

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English contentement,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French contentement,^[3][4][5] from contenter (“to content, satisfy”).^[5][3][6] Etymonline takes the source as Old French,^[6] and the Anglo-Norman contentement, satisfaction, is recorded from about 1305,^[7] while the OED finds the French word in Littré only from the late 16th century.^[5] The French verb is from content (“satisfied”), from Latin contentus (“contained; satisfied”), the past participle of contineō (“to hold together, enclose”), from com- and teneō (“to hold”), from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Satisfactory payment of a debt or obligation, satisfaction of a claim: 1437, in the Rolls of Parliament.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century in this sense,^[6] the Oxford Dictionary of English notes it as the original sense,^[8] and the OED's first record, of about 1475, has the sense "the action of satisfying".^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a noun of action, the satisfying of a claim or the payment of a debt; the OED still has the payment sense in 1603,^[5][2] and the Shorter Oxford dates it to the early 17th century.^[9] In the late 16th century it gained the senses "a source of pleasure" (1579) and "pleasure, gratification" (1587), both now obsolete,^[5] and in 1597, in Hooker, the modern sense, the state of being contented.^[5][6] The OED observes that in English the word largely exchanged the character of a noun of action for that of a noun of quality, as though it meant contentedness.^[5] Etymonline quotes Thomas Fuller's The Holy State (1652): "Contentment consisteth not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire."^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it first as acquiescence without full satisfaction, and second as gratification.^[10]

Timeline

• 1437 – satisfactory payment of a debt or claim.^[2]
• c. 1475 – the action of satisfying; satisfaction (now archaic).^[5]
• 1579 – a source of satisfaction or pleasure (obsolete by 1692).^[5]
• 1587 – pleasure, gratification (obsolete by 1796).^[5]
• 1597 – the state of being contented, in Hooker.^[5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1590s.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being contented; quiet satisfaction with one's situation: She found contentment in her small garden.^{[11][12][3][5]}
2. Something that gives content or pleasure.^[11][12][3]
3. (archaic) The act of satisfying someone or something.^[3][5]
4. (archaic) Pleasure, gratification.^[3][10][5]
5. (obsolete) Payment of a claim or debt.^[2][9][5]

Related words

• content
• contented
• discontent
• contain

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary's distinction: contentment is passive, the feeling of someone who does not long for what is out of reach or fret at hardship, while satisfaction is active, the state of someone who has all that is wanted; a needy person may be contented but hardly satisfied.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster