A person who gets pleasure or satisfaction from causing pain or suffering to others.
From the Marquis de Sade, an 18th-century French writer known for describing cruel acts in his works. The term entered English in the late 1800s to describe someone with similar tendencies.
The word 'sadist' comes from a real person's name—the Marquis de Sade—which is why it's capitalized in French but became lowercase in English as the concept spread. It's one of the few psychiatric terms that started as a person's surname rather than Greek or Latin roots.
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