satisfaction

From Middle English satisfaccioun, from Old French satisfaccion and Latin satisfactiō, satisfactiōnis.

• IPA^(key): /sætɪsˈfækʃən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækʃən

satisfaction (countable and uncountable, plural satisfactions)

1. A fulfilment of a need or desire.
2. The pleasure obtained by such fulfillment.
   • November 4, 1860, Henry David Thoreau, letter to Mr. D. R.

     This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.

3. The source of such gratification.
4. A reparation for an injury or loss.
5. A vindication for a wrong suffered.

   The count demanded satisfaction in the form of a duel at dawn.

   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 269:

     He is knight dubb'd with vnhatche'd Rapier, and on carpet conſideration, but he is a diuell in priuate brall, soules and bodies hath he diuorc'd three, and his incenſement at this moment is ſo implacable, that ſatisfaction can be none, but by pangs of death and ſepulcher: Hob, nob, is his word: giu't or take't.

6. (euphemistic) Sexual pleasure.
   • 1976 April 10, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 18:

     To young man who enjoys receiving oral satisfaction, this BiWM will give you all you want.

Learned borrowing from Latin satisfactiōnem.

• IPA^(key): /sa.tis.fak.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

satisfaction f (uncountable)

1. satisfaction
2. fulfilment

   Synonym: assouvissement

3. pleasure

   Synonym: plaisir

• satisfaire
• satiété
• assez

• “satisfaction”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.