How a Word Tells a Story: The Origin of Sadism

Do you ever hear a word over and over throughout your life and never consider where it came from? This article reveals how a word can reveal an interesting story. This is the story behind the word sadism.

Merriam-Webster's web site provides two definitions for sadism. The first definition is "a sexual perversion in which gratification is obtained by the infliction of physical or mental pain on others (as on a love object)." This use of the word is commonly heard in reference to the term of sadomasochism, or a type of relationship in which one person obtains pleasure from inflicting bodily harm or mental anguish on the other person. When some people hear this word, they think of the stereotypical relationship of master and slave.

Merriam-Webster's second definition for sadism is "delight in cruelty" or "excessive cruelty." This meaning is more commonly used to describe people who take pleasure in being cruel to others. Have you ever described someone who treats people cruelly as sadistic or a sadist?

Now look past the dictionary definitions of sadism to the story behind the word, which is referenced in the Merriam-Webster definition. MW cites that the etymology of sadism comes from 1888 and refers to the infamous Frenchman, the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814).

A notorious figure from French history, the Marquis de Sade has been portrayed in well-known movies like 2000's Quills, starring Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, and Michael Caine. This figure was a French aristocrat named Donatien Alphonse-Francois de Sade. He was born to a French noble family, lived in a castle, and was arranged to marry a bourgeois heiress by his father. He spent time in mental institutions and jails, equaling over thirty years of his lifetime. Fourteen of those years were the result of being incarcerated at the hands of his mother-in-law.

One of Sade's arguable literary achievements was his penmanship of many novels, some of which were both graphically violent and philosophical. If you read more in depth about Sade, you will find a common theme that he was a myth, a legend, and a historical figure all rolled into one. In other words, some things attributed to him are historically accurate and many others are contrived.

Although Sade engaged in questionable relationships with prostitutes, his sister-in-law, and others and performed sexual acts of questionable morality, his life exhibits the typical rollercoaster of a mental genius who suffered from delusions and fantasies. To see glimpses of his literary skill, you have to look past his offensive morality. For a great biography of the Marquis de Sade, read Neil Schaeffer's The Marquis de Sade: A Life, published in paperback by the Harvard University Press.