algedonic

English

WOTD – 4 February 2006

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἄλγος (álgos, “pain”) + ἡδονή (hēdonḗ) ‘pleasure’. Coined by Henry Rutgers Marshall in 1894 (see citation).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æld͡ʒɪˈdɒnɪk/

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Adjective

algedonic (comparative more algedonic, superlative most algedonic)

1. Pertaining to both pleasure and pain.
   • 1894, Henry Rutgers Marshall, Pain, Pleasure, and Æsthetics‎^[1], London: Macmillan, page vi:

     I have restrained myself, however, from the temptation to invent terms except in one particular, viz. in the word “algedonic” […] which I use adjectively to describe any phase of pain-pleasure experience […] .

   • 1965, John Fowles, The Magus‎^[2], Boston: Little, Brown, Part 2, Chapter 29, p. 161:

     For him even the most painful social confrontations and contrasts, which would have stabbed the conscience of even the vulgarest nouveau riche, were stingless. Without significance except as vignettes, as interesting discords, as pleasurable because vivid examples of the algedonic polarity of existence.

See also

• algedonics

Anagrams

• coaligned, coleading, genocidal