- the getting of sexual pleasure from dominating, mistreating, or hurting one's sexual partner
- the getting of pleasure from inflicting physical or psychological pain on another or others
Origin of sadism
Fr, after the Marquis de Sade
noun
Sadism is defined as a desire to inflict pain on others, especially for sexual gratification, or is defined as getting pleasure from being extremely cruelty.
Enjoying the act of causing pain on your lover for sexual gratification is an example of sadism.
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sadism
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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sadism
noun
- The deriving of sexual gratification from fantasies or acts that involve causing others to suffer physical or mental pain. Also called sexual sadism .
- The deriving of pleasure from cruelty.
- Extreme cruelty: video games that are full of sadism.
Origin of sadism
AfterComteDonatien Alphonse François de SadeRelated Forms:
- sa′dist
noun
- sa·dis′tic
adjective
- sa·dis′ti·cal·ly
adverb
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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Noun
(countable and uncountable, plural sadisms)
- (chiefly psychiatry) the enjoyment of inflicting pain without pity
- achievement of sexual gratification by inflicting pain on others
- gaining sexual excitement and satisfaction by watching pain inflicted by others on their victims
- a morbid form of enjoyment achieved by acting cruelly to another, or others
- (in general use) Deliberate cruelty, either mental or physical; also refers to cruelty inflicted upon animals, regardless of gratification
Origin
Named after the Marquis de Sade, famed for his libertine writings depicting the pleasure of inflicting pain to others. The word for "sadism" (sadisme) was coined or acknowledged in the 1834 posthumous reprint of French lexicographer Boiste's Dictionnaire universel de la langue française; it is reused along with "sadist" (sadique) in 1862 by French critic Sainte-Beuve in his commentary of Flaubert's novel Salammbô; it is reused (possibly independently) in 1886 by Austrian psychiatrist Krafft-Ebing in Psychopathia Sexualis which popularized it; it is directly reused in 1905 by Freud in Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality which definitely established the word.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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sadism - Medical Definition
n.
- The deriving of sexual gratification from fantasies or acts that involve causing others to suffer physical or mental pain. In this sense also called sexual sadism
- The deriving of pleasure from cruelty.
- Extreme cruelty: video games that are full of sadism.
Related Forms:
- sa′dist
n.
- sa·dis′tic (sə-dĭs′tĭk)
adj.
- sa·dis′ti·cal·ly
adv.
The American Heritage Dictionary of Medicine © 2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"Sadism." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/Sadism.
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Sadism. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Sadism
Sentence Examples
- The word Sadism, meaning a form of sexual perversion, is derived from his name.