assignation

From Old French assignacion.

• IPA^(key): /æsɪɡˈneɪʃən/

assignation (countable and uncountable, plural assignations)

1. An appointment for a meeting, generally of a romantic or sexual nature.
   • Alexander Pope

     While nymphs take treats, or assignations give.

   • 1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of Fanny Hill‎:

     As soon as Mr. Barville saw me, he got up, with a visible air of pleasure and surprize, and saluting me, asked Mrs. Cole if it was possible that so fine and delicate a creature would voluntarily submit to such sufferings and rigours as were the subject of his assignation.

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     What assignations followed we can never know, except that, according to Morrie, Rick did once boast that there was more than cake and lemon barley waiting for him up at The Glades when he delivered the church magazine.

2. The act of assigning or allotting; apportionment.
   • Holland

     This order being taken in the senate, as touching the appointment and assignation of those provinces.

3. A making over by transfer of title; assignment.

Modern usage confines the word to mean an agreed-upon place for illicit sex, but earlier usage is broader, and considerably more innocent.

• saginations

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assignation f (plural assignations)

1. assignation