Masochism: a bad rap from inception
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Long ago (half a century), I had occasion to translate the word "masochism" into Chinese. At that stage, I wasn't even sure what "masochism" itself meant. Supposedly it was "the madness of deriving pleasure from pain", I guessed especially sexual pleasure — something like that.
Wanting to give the most accurate possible translation into Chinese, I thought I should begin by investigating the etymology of the word, as is my bent. So I pulled out my trusty 1960 Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, my lexical vade mecum. Here's what it had (has — I still keep it on my desk):
[After L. von Sacher-Masoch (1835-1895), Austrian novelist, who described it.] Med. Abnormal sexual passion characterized by pleasure in being abused by one's associate; hence any pleasure in being abused or dominated.
My recollection is that, at the time, I couldn't readily find an English-Chinese dictionary that had the term "masochism" in it, so I may have made up this rendering for it myself, although I'm not absolutely certain that I did so:
zìnüèdài kuáng 自虐待狂 ("madness of self abuse") (129 ghits)
Be that as it may, there's no doubt that the most common translation of "masochism" in Chinese today is this:
shòunüèkuáng 受虐狂 ("madness of enduring / accepting / receiving abuse") (13,700.000 ghits)
It seems that nobody attempted to render "masochism" in such a way that it would reflect the fact that it derived from a person's surname.
Now, more than half a century later, wanting to see the latest understanding of the term, I looked it up in two current etymological reference works.
From German Masochismus, coined alongside Sadismus in 1886 by Richard von Krafft-Ebing in his book Psychopathia Sexualis. Named after Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose novel "Venus in Furs" explores a sadomasochistic relationship, + -ism.
In more detail, Etymonline:
"sexual pleasure in being hurt or abused," 1892, from German Masochismus, coined 1883 by German neurologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902), from name of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895), Austrian utopian socialist novelist who enshrined his submissive sexuality in "Venus in Furs" (1869, German title "Venus im Pelz").
Sacher-Masoch's parents merged their name when they married; his maternal grandfather Dr. Franz Masoch (1763-1845) was born in Moldova Nouă in what is now Romania. The surname might be toponymic from a village that is now in northern Italy; or it might be a Germanized form of a Czech surname that amounts to a double-diminutive of given names with a prominent Ma- or -maš element (Tomaš, Mattej, etc.)
The term masochism was coined in 1886 by the Austrian psychiatrist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902) in his book Psychopathia Sexualis:
…I feel justified in calling this sexual anomaly "Masochism", because the author Sacher-Masoch frequently made this perversion, which up to his time was quite unknown to the scientific world as such, the substratum of his writings. I followed thereby the scientific formation of the term "Daltonism", from Dalton, the discoverer of colour-blindness.
During recent years facts have been advanced which prove that Sacher-Masoch was not only the poet of Masochism, but that he himself was afflicted with the anomaly. Although these proofs were communicated to me without restriction, I refrain from giving them to the public. I refute the accusation that "I have coupled the name of a revered author with a perversion of the sexual instinct", which has been made against me by some admirers of the author and by some critics of my book. As a man, Sacher-Masoch cannot lose anything in the estimation of his cultured fellow-beings simply because he was afflicted with an anomaly of his sexual feelings. As an author, he suffered severe injury so far as the influence and intrinsic merit of his work is concerned, for so long and whenever he eliminated his perversion from his literary efforts he was a gifted writer, and as such would have achieved real greatness had he been actuated by normally sexual feelings. In this respect he is a remarkable example of the powerful influence exercised by the vita sexualis be it in the good or evil sense over the formation and direction of man's mind.
Sacher-Masoch was not pleased with Krafft-Ebing's assertions. Nevertheless, details of Masoch's private life were obscure until Aurora von Rümelin's memoirs, Meine Lebensbeichte (My Life Confession; 1906), were published in Berlin under the pseudonym Wanda v. Dunajew (the name of a leading character in his Venus in Furs). The following year, a French translation, Confession de ma vie (1907) by "Wanda von Sacher-Masoch", was printed in Paris by Mercure de France. An English translation of the French edition was published as The Confessions of Wanda von Sacher-Masoch (1991) by RE/Search Publications.
(Wikipedia)Suppose your name was Plarich and somebody coined the term Plarichism as "deriving pleasure from eating insects" because you actually ate some bugs. Wouldn't you be upset at having insect-eating named after you? Wouldn't it be better / more scientific to call it entomophagy? Mutatis mutandis, ditto for some Latinate version of "the madness of deriving sexual pleasure from pain", rather than "masochism".
I will not attempt to sort out the similarities and differences with sadism, with which masochism is often linked, thus sadomasochism, except to say that, although it looks as though it might have a more conventional etymology ("sad"), sadism too is named after an individual, the French libertine Marquis de Sade (1740–1814).
From French sadisme and German Sadismus. 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 definitively established the word.
Incidentally, here's a bit of trivia that may interest some Language Log readers: "Sacher-Masoch is the great-great-uncle, through her Austrian-born mother Eva von Sacher-Masoch, Baroness Erisso, of the late English Rock star and film actress Marianne Faithfull. She passed away in January of 2025". (source)
Selected readings
-
- "Usage masochism" (6/25/14)
- "Annals of redundancy and masochism" (7/17/17)
- "'Sadomasochism' in Chinese" (7/28/13)
- "Sinological suffering" (3/31/17)
- "More comments on comments (just between us)" (1/9/12)
Anthony B said,
June 28, 2025 @ 7:00 pm
What do they do with political movements named after people, e.g. Poujadism and Peronism?
Jonathan Smith said,
June 28, 2025 @ 10:48 pm
^ No problem, as personal names do (or can instantly) have Chinese-language versions themselves — thus e.g. Mǎkèsī 馬克思 Marx > Mǎkèsī zhǔyì 馬克思主義 Marxism. What becomes silly is when such terms are "read" into Chinese langs. in which they were not coined…
lucubratiuncula said,
June 29, 2025 @ 1:07 am
Ha, I think relying on a 1960 dictionary specifically for terms referring to non-normative sexuality is a bad habit that will often backfire.
Victor Mair said,
June 29, 2025 @ 5:56 am
No doubt, but it was back in the late sixties when I did that.
Matt McIrvin said,
June 29, 2025 @ 1:55 am
Since "self-abuse" in English used to be a euphemism for masturbation, I might have read that first translation differently if I'd looked up the words.
Philip Taylor said,
June 29, 2025 @ 9:02 am
"I wondered what Leopold von Sacher-Masoch himself thought of having this embarrassing disorder named after him" — is there any reason to think that Leopold von Sacher-Masoch regarded the practice as an "embarrassing disorder" rather than as something perfectly normal ? Almost everything that can be characterised as a sexual perversion is regarded as perfectly normal by its practitioners …
Dave J. said,
June 29, 2025 @ 2:28 pm
Just FYI, there is a Japanese women’s health product company named Plarich. One user’s comment says “ Since it's a drink, it works quickly, and after drinking it I noticed that I became less tired, my burn scars disappeared, my period pain went away, and my pores got smaller – it was all good!” Wow, Plarich’s Panacea! Gimme a dozen!
Scott P. said,
June 29, 2025 @ 6:29 pm
Given that masochism is often paired with sadism, another 'ism' also derived from a personal name, I am curious what 'sadism' is in Putonghua
Josh R. said,
June 29, 2025 @ 7:34 pm
My recollection is that, at the time, I couldn't readily find an English-Chinese dictionary that had the term "masochism" in it, so I may have made up this rendering for it myself, although I'm not absolutely certain that I did so:
Professor Mair wrote:
"…so I may have made up this rendering for it myself, although I'm not absolutely certain that I did so:
zìnüèdài kuáng 自虐待狂 ("madness of self abuse") (129 ghits)
Be that as it may, there's no doubt that the most common translation of "masochism" in Chinese today is this:
shòunüèkuáng 受虐狂 ("madness of enduring / accepting / receiving abuse") (13,700.000 ghits)
It seems that nobody attempted to render "masochism" in such a way that it would reflect the fact that it derived from a person's surname."
The Japanese did! (Kinda.)
In the broader sense, there is 自己虐待 (jiko gyakutai, "self-abuse"), very similar to your own attempt. Perhaps that's where you got inspiration?
However, as the psychological term, they have both 被虐性欲 (higyaku seiyoku; sexual desire to be abused), but more commonly マゾヒズム (mazohizumu; transliterating "masochism"). Of note is that while it retains the English "-ism" rather than German "-ismus", the part derived from "Masoch" keeps the German voiced sibilant for "s", and a fricative for "chi" instead of the English plosive. Masoch itself is rendered in Japanese as マゾッホ mazohho.
As a result, the word マゾ "mazo" is used colloquially in the same figurative sense that English speakers use "masochistic" to mean self-punishing rather than referring specifically to the kink.
Josh R. said,
June 29, 2025 @ 7:35 pm
Sorry, there appears to be a bit of double copy-paste in the above comment.
Victor Mair said,
June 29, 2025 @ 8:14 pm
@Scott P.
nüèdài kuáng 虐待狂
David Morris said,
June 29, 2025 @ 9:22 pm
Late last year a colleague informed us about sachertorte day. I said "As long as it's not Sacher-Masoch day' which I then had to explain because his general knowledge extends in different directions than mine.
Bob Ladd said,
June 30, 2025 @ 8:29 am
With regard to the wisdom (or otherwise) of relying on a 1960s dictionary: I have a distinct recollection that the Seventh Collegiate edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary (which I lost somewhere along the line when I moved from place to place during the 1970s, so I can't check) gave the following capsule description of the Marquis de Sade in its "biographical dictionary": following his full name and years of birth and death, he was simply "French soldier and pervert".
Jerry Packard said,
June 30, 2025 @ 9:19 am
FWIW, google translate tells us
sadism =虐待狂，nüèdài kuáng
masochism = 受虐狂 shòu nüè kuáng
Rodger C said,
June 30, 2025 @ 9:51 am
Late last year a colleague informed us about sachertorte day.
Did he pronounce it "soccer tort day"?
Victor Mair said,
June 30, 2025 @ 10:16 am
@Jerry Paackard
For those who don't know Chinese, the first type of abuse is for individuals who dish / hand it out, the second is for individuals who endure / accept it.
So there is a difference between sadism and masochism, and why we need a hyphenated term for the two of them together.
wgj said,
June 30, 2025 @ 10:42 am
This reminds me of the old joke:
"Hurt me!", begged the masochist. "No!", answered the sadist.
Which is to point out, sadism doesn't necessarily involve inflicting pain onto others – merely denying pleasure is sometimes enough.
Brett said,
June 30, 2025 @ 11:19 am
Donatien Alphonse Francois, Marquis de Sade was just as into masochism as sadism (among other even less common sexual interests).
David Morris said,
June 30, 2025 @ 3:21 pm
@Rodger C: The colleague informed us by email, which doesn't involve pronouncing.
I have a memory that the Irish comedian Dave Allen had a video sketch in which a member of the Sadist Society and a member of the Masochist Society met on a footpath, each selling badges for their society. They took it in turns to buy a badge from each other, with the sadist pinning them into the masochist. (I didn't understand that at the time (adolescent/young teen), and my father declined to explain.) I searched for that and couldn't find it, but found this excerpt, which is a slightly expanded version of the joke @wgj mentions above.
David Morris said,
June 30, 2025 @ 3:22 pm
Better include the link: https://www.bitchute.com/video/E2gygOTcQeBv/
Philip Taylor said,
July 1, 2025 @ 3:23 am
0:22 to 0:24 "I gain pleasure from giving physical pain". I don't know whether Mr Allen added the word "physical" spontaneously, but whilst the joke/story works well if the word "physical" is omitted, it fails miserably when included.