saturation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin saturātiō (“fullness, a filling”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from the past participle stem of Latin saturō (“to fill, sate”), the source of saturate,^[2][3][4] from satur (“sated, full”),^[7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *sā- (“to satisfy”).^[8][7] Etymonline also allows that it was formed in English from saturate,^[8] and the OED and the Shorter Oxford note that the later senses were shaped by the verb.^[2][5] The OED compares Middle French saturation (1513) and Spanish saturación.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Complete satisfaction of the appetite, satiation: about 1530, in the Dialoges of Creatures Moralysed,^[2] or 1554 (in Coverdale) according to Merriam-Webster and Etymonline.^[3][8] This sense is now obsolete.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In 17th-century chemistry saturation became the state of a substance holding as much of another as it can take, recorded from 1662,^[2][9] or the 1670s in Etymonline.^[8] The physical sense "a thorough soaking" is from 1732,^[2][9] and the abstract "state of being filled or permeated with something" from 1813;^[2][9] from 1835 economists spoke of the saturation of a market.^[2] Physics extended it to a gas, such as air, holding as much suspended matter as it can (1774) and to magnetism (1787).^[2] From 1872 it also meant the intensity of a colour,^[9] a sense Etymonline dates to 1878;^[8] it was used of the colour setting of television sets by 1964.^[8] Also from 1872 it was used of the concentration of a gas, especially oxygen, in the blood.^[9] Saturation bombing dates from 1942, of the mass Allied air raids on German cities.^[8][9]

Timeline

• c. 1530 – complete satisfaction of the appetite (obsolete).^[2]
• 1662 – in chemistry, the state of holding as much of a substance as possible.^[2][9]
• 1732 – thorough soaking.^[2]
• 1774 – of a gas holding as much suspended matter as it can.^[2]
• 1787 – in magnetism.^[2]
• 1813 – the state of being filled or permeated with something.^[2]
• 1835 – of a market fully supplied.^[2]
• 1872 – the intensity of a colour; the concentration of a gas in the blood.^[9]
• 1942 – saturation bombing.^[8][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of saturating something, or the state of being saturated.^[10][11]
2. In chemistry, the state of a solution, compound or vapour that holds as much of a substance as it can.^[10][2]
3. In meteorology, the state of air holding as much water vapour as it can, the relative humidity being 100 percent.^[10][2]
4. The intensity or vividness of a colour, the proportion of pure colour in it.^[10][9]
5. In physics, the state of a ferromagnetic substance that cannot be magnetized further.^[10][11][2]
6. The state of a market that is fully supplied.^[2]
7. (often attributive) An overwhelming concentration of force or coverage, as in saturation bombing.^[2][8][9]
8. (obsolete) Complete satisfaction of the appetite.^[2][5]

Word family

• nonsaturation
• desaturation
• supersaturation
• oversaturation
• subsaturation
• saturation diving
• saturation point

Related words

• saturate
• satiate
• satire
• sad

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin