insatiate

English

WOTD – 13 November 2019

Etymology

From Late Middle English insaciate, insaciat, insacyate (insatiable),[1] from Latin insatiātus, from in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + satiātus (satisfied; having been satisfied) (perfect passive participle of satiō (to satisfy), from satis (enough; filled; plenty) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂- (to satiate, satisfy)) + (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).[2]

Pronunciation

Adjective

insatiate (comparative more insatiate, superlative most insatiate)

  1. (archaic or literary) That is not satiated; insatiable.
    Antonyms: satiable, satisfiable
    • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. [] (First Quarto), London: Printed by Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, [], published 1597, OCLC 213833262, [Act II, scene i]:
      Light vanitie inſatiate cormorant, / Conſuming meanes ſoone praies vpon it selfe: [...]
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker [] [a]nd by Robert Boulter [] [a]nd Matthias Walker, [], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: [], London: Basil Montagu Pickering [], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 5–10:
      Satan exalted ſat, by merit raiſ'd / To that bad eminence; and from deſpair / Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aſpires / Beyond thus high, inſatiate to pursue / Vain Warr with Heav'n, and by ſucceſs untaught / His proud imaginations thus diſplaid.
    • 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter III, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. In Three Volumes, volume III, London: Printed [by Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, OCLC 830979744, pages 49–50:
      I shuddered to think who might be the next victim sacrificed to his insatiate revenge.
    • 1878, John Addington Symonds, “Le Jeune Homme Caressant sa Chimère. For an Intaglio.”, in Many Moods: A Volume of Verse, London: John Murray, [], OCLC 10426240, page 36:
      A boy of eighteen years mid myrtle-boughs / Lying love-languid on a morn of May, / Watched half-asleep his goats insatiate browse / Thin shoots of thyme and lentisk, by the spray / Of biting sea-winds bitter made and grey: [...]
    • 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter V.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, OCLC 639975898, page 240:
      [T]hat mode of manning the fleet, a mode now fallen into a sort of abeyance but never formally renounced, it was not practicable to give up in those years. Its abrogation would have crippled the indispensable fleet, [...] a fleet the more insatiate in demand for men, because then multiplying its ships of all grades against contingencies present and to come of the convulsed Continent.
    • 1980, Peter De Vries, chapter 5, in Consenting Adults, or The Duchess Will Be Furious, London: Penguin, →ISBN, page 69:
      Then again the heaving bosom of the Mediterranean, clothes strewn along the shore, running naked into the sea while wind-exported Andalusian odors spice the insatiate night!

Derived terms

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References

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