DictionaryRoot: -ismus
German
-ismus
a practice, system, or doctrine
Forms
- -ismus
Origin
Through Latin -ismus from Greek -ismos.
Note
Its use for doctrines is a specialization of a broader action-and-practice ending.
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noun
masochism
MAS-uh-kiz-um/ˈmæsəkɪzəm/
Enjoyment of one's own pain, humiliation, or suffering.
Etymology
Masoch refers to the novelist Sacher-Masoch, who portrayed his submissive sexuality in Venus in Furs. His name supplied a term originally for sexual pleasure in being hurt or abused.