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We all know that The Marquis de Sade popularized the term 'sadist' via "120 days of Sodom" and "Justine" - as well as being exemplified by his own devilish lifestyle. How/why was the word 'masochism' popularized?

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Masochism is named after Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and you can get all of the filthy details at that link.

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Yeah, well, I didn't use Google or Wikipedia. :) – chaos Mar 25 '11 at 15:31
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@chaos, good for you! Would you like a gold star? – JSBձոգչ Mar 25 '11 at 15:42
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Well, I was hoping for platinum, but if gold is the best you can do, I suppose that would be all right. – chaos Mar 25 '11 at 16:00
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But it's Tom Lehrer that captures the essence of it. youtube.com/watch?v=TytGOeiW0aE – mickeyf Mar 25 '11 at 17:28
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@chaos - no need to beat yourself up about it ;-) – mgb Apr 1 '11 at 16:14
up vote 5 down vote

Uh, yeah, it's another eponym, by way of a dude named Masoch, sometimes praised as rather an artiste where de Sade is, by some accounts, fundamentally just a bully.

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Might you be so kind as to elaborate – user5531 Mar 25 '11 at 16:25
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Elaboration is hardly necessary here. All hits on the first page of Google results for Masoch identify the dude in question. Doubtless all those pages will flag up the sexual proclivity, if you want to dig that deep. – FumbleFingers Mar 28 '11 at 19:05
Too bad no-one mentioned that his book : "Venus in Furs" is the direct method by which it was introduced. – user5531 Apr 1 '11 at 15:51

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