satiety

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French satieté, also sacieté, and directly borrowed from Latin satietās (“sufficiency, abundance; being glutted”),^[2] from satis (“enough”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *sā- (“to satisfy”).^[3][4] Anglo-Norman sacieté is recorded from the first half of the 12th century,^[5] and in Old French the word appears in the early 12th century as Old French sazieted.^[2] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English give only the French source,^[6][7] and the Shorter Oxford records an earlier English spelling, sacietie;^[6] Dictionary.com takes the present form directly from Latin, replacing that earlier borrowing,^[8] and Collins names only Latin.^[9] The OED compares Spanish saciedad.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A feeling of surfeit or disgust from having eaten or drunk too much: 1528, in T. Paynell's translation of Arnaldus de Villa Nova.^[2] Merriam-Webster gives 1533 and Etymonline the 1530s.^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with a bad sense, and in 1533, in T. Elyot's Pasquil the Playne, it was already extended from food to any appetite indulged to excess, with the weariness that follows.^[2] French had long had a neutral sense as well, the full attainment of a desire,^[2] and English used the word that way from 1548, of being filled or having had enough.^[2] The Shorter Oxford marks this use as dead by the early 18th century,^[6] but the OED's revised entry does not,^[2] and Etymonline says that the word is seldom used in a good sense.^[3] Johnson's definition (1755) shows the prevailing tone: "fulness beyond desire or pleasure; more than enough; wearisomeness of plenty".^[11] The phrase to satiety, modelled on Latin ad satietātem, is recorded from 1565.^[2] From 1569, in J. Knox, the word could also mean more than enough of something, a use now rare.^[2][6] Psychology and physiology took it up as a neutral term for the state in which appetite is suppressed and eating stops: the OED dates this to 1888,^[2] the Shorter Oxford to the mid 20th century, together with satiety centre, an area of the brain.^[6]

Timeline

• 1528 – surfeit or disgust from too much food or drink.^[2]
• 1533 – excessive gratification of any desire, and weariness from it.^[2][10]
• 1548 – in a neutral or positive sense, fullness, or having enough.^[2]
• 1565 – to satiety.^[2]
• 1569 – an abundance, more than enough of something.^[2]
• 1888 – in psychology and physiology, the state in which hunger is satisfied and eating stops.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being fed to capacity or beyond; fullness or surfeit: The guests ate to satiety at the wedding table.^[9][10][2]
2. Excessive gratification of a desire, and the weariness or dislike that results.^[10][2][6]
3. (psychology and physiology) The state in which the need for food has been met, so that eating stops.^[2][6]
4. to satiety: to a degree that fully satisfies, or now less often gluts, an appetite or desire.^[2][6]
5. (rare or archaic) An ample or more than sufficient amount of something.^[10][2][6]

Related words

• satiate
• sate
• satisfy
• satiation

Usage notes

The OED notes that Walker (1828) described the pronunciation /səˈsaɪɪtɪ/ as all but universally current in his time, and criticized it as against all analogy.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.