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sadisme

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Etymology and origin of the French word sadisme

Confidence
Established
Formation
Eponym, Derivation
First attested
1834 Boiste More words from the 19th century
Ultimate origin
French Sade,-isme
From the same root
English sadistic ← sadisme

Pronunciation

Forms

sadisme m (plural sadismes)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French Sade + -isme, from the name of Donatien Alphonse François, comte de Sade, known as the marquis de Sade (1740–1814), whose novels describe a cruel eroticism.[2][3][4][5]

The sources date it differently: 1834 in Boiste's dictionary for the Grand Robert, the GLLF and Rey,[6][3][4] 1836 for Bloch and Wartburg,[5] and 1841 (Boiste) for the TLFi and the Petit Robert.[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Boiste's dictionary first defined it as a frightful aberration of debauchery, a monstrous and antisocial system that revolts nature.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The first, general sense of debauchery mixed with cruelty is now dated.[4][2] From 1887 the word is used, in everyday language, of a perverse taste for making others suffer;[4][7] the TLFi dates this sense from Léon Bloy in 1897.[2]

It became a technical term of psychiatry through the German physician Krafft-Ebing, who used it at the end of the 19th century for a sexual perversion in which pleasure depends on the suffering of another, and set it against masochisme; the French translation of his Psychopathia sexualis (1892) brought this sense into French.[4] Psychoanalysis took it up in the 20th century.[2][8] English sadism (1888) was borrowed from the French word.[9]

Timeline

  • 1834 – First recorded, in Boiste's dictionary.[4][6][3]
  • 1887 – Used of a perverse taste for making others suffer.[4][7]
  • 1888 – English borrows it as sadism.[9]
  • 1892 – The French translation of Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia sexualis gives it its psychiatric sense.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (psychiatry) A sexual perversion in which pleasure is obtained by inflicting physical or mental suffering on another.[7][2][3]
  2. A perverse delight in the suffering of others; cruauté: Il corrigeait les copies avec un certain sadisme.[7][3]
  3. (dated) Lust mixed with cruelty.[2]
  • sadique
  • masochisme
  • sadomasochisme

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
Cite this entry

“Sadisme.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/sadisme. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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