2757: Sad, Sate, and Satisfy Jul 8, 2024

The word ‘sad’ comes from the Old English sæd, having the same pronunciation as it still has. Thanks for reading and sign up for the email list.

Of course, that isn’t very interesting, unless you consider that the Old English word meant almost the opposite of ‘sad’ as it is used in Modern English, having the sense of ‘sated’ / ‘satisfied’. This sense was born from the word’s other connotation of ‘weary’, as in after a meal one would feel sæd, which in this context is to say full and tired. Thus, the split was formed in the two doublets with one going on emphasize the qualities of being weary, eventually being taken to mean ‘depressed’, while the other kept the sense of ‘filled’ emphasizing the state of satisfaction. 

As mentioned, ‘sate’ comes from this sense of ‘full’ but this is not related to ‘satiate’ or ‘satisfy’, despite their similar forms and meanings, that come from Latin instead.