Today's Word

Yesterday's Word

Archives

FAQ

A.Word.A.Day--algolagnia

algolagnia (algoe-LAG-nee-uh) noun

Sexual gratification derived from inflicting or experiencing pain.

[New Latin : algo- + Greek lagneia, lust (from lagnos, lustful).]

"Nurse Wolf was my name for this queen of algolagnia - of pleasure from pain. She gave pleasure by inflicting it, she got pleasure from causing it." Paul Theroux, Chastise and consent, Independent on Sunday, 19 Jul 1998.

You knew this was coming, didn't you? After previous week's words produced by adding suffixes, it's time for giving equal opportunity to the other affix, so let's look at some prefixed words. The prefixes that appear this week are: algo- (pain), miso- (hatred), phil- (love), megalo- (large), geo- (earth), pyro- (fire, heat), cosmo- (world). -Anu

X-Bonus