satiate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English saciaten,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin satiātus,^[2][5][4] the past participle of satiō (“to fill, satisfy”),^[6][5][7] from satis (“enough”),^[5][3][6][8] from Proto-Indo-European *sā- (“to satisfy”),^[5][3] the base that also gave sad.^[9][4] The OED records the adjective first (1440), from the same participle, and the verb a little later.^[6][4] The spelling satiate is first found in 1611.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, filled to the full: 1440, in Capgrave's Life of St Norbert.^[6][4] As a verb, to fill or satisfy with food or nourishment: about 1450, in a translation of Ruusbroec.^[6][4][5] The MED gathers both under saciaten, for filling someone completely and for sating an appetite or a wicked desire.^[2]

Semantic evolution

English first took the verb in the sense "give enough", close to satisfy, but from the 17th century this was gradually pushed aside by "give too much, surfeit".^[9] The dates for the bad sense differ: the OED has it before 1460, in Bokenham,^[6] the Shorter Oxford in the late 16th century,^[10] and Etymonline by the 1620s.^[5] A chemical sense, "to saturate", was used from 1662 to 1862, and the OED takes it as originally modelled on German gesättigt.^[6] In Weekley's view the Latin-derived verb influenced the shorter sate.^[11] The adjective satiate, which Johnson glosses in 1755 as "glutted; full to satiety",^[12] is now archaic.^[3]

Timeline

• 1440 – adjective, filled to the full, in Capgrave.^[6][4]
• c. 1450 – verb, to fill or satisfy to the full.^[6][4][5]
• before 1460 – to fill to excess; to weary by excess, in Bokenham.^[6] Etymonline dates this to the 1620s.^[5]
• 1611 – the spelling satiate.^[4]
• 1645 – intransitive, to cause a sense of fullness.^[6]
• 1662 – in chemistry, to saturate (obsolete by 1862).^[6]
• 1667 – intransitive, to cause weariness by excess, in Milton.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To satisfy an appetite or desire fully: A bowl of stew satiated the hikers' hunger.^{[13][3][14][6]}
2. To give someone more than enough; to glut or surfeit, often to the point of weariness: By the third week she was satiated with sightseeing.^{[13][3][14][6]}
3. (obsolete, 1662–1862) To saturate.^[6][14][10]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Filled to satisfaction; satiated.^[3][12]

Word family

• satiation
• satiated

Related words

• sate
• satiety
• satisfaction
• satisfactory
• satisfy
• satiable
• sad

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ 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.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster