pleasure (English)
Where does "pleasure" come from?
Pleasure began with the ancient Proto-Indo-European root for 'flat' or 'wide,' eventually evolving into the Latin verb 'placeo,' meaning to please or be agreeable. After passing through Old French as the noun 'plaisir,' the word entered Middle English and was later modified to end in '-ure' to match other common English nouns. Today, it has evolved from a simple description of satisfaction into a polite social formula used to welcome others.
Full etymology tree
- pleasure (English), 'A state of being pleased or contented; gratification.'
- derived from plaisir (Middle English)
- borrowed from plaisir (Old French), 'pleasure'
- inherited from placere (Latin), 'second-person singular present passive subjunctive of plācō'
- inherited from *pleh₂-k- (Proto-Indo-European)
- derived from *pleh₂- (Proto-Indo-European), 'flat'
- inherited from *pleh₂-k- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited from placere (Latin), 'second-person singular present passive subjunctive of plācō'
- borrowed from plaisir (Old French), 'pleasure'
- suffix -ure (Middle English), 'Forms abstract nouns denoting actions or results.'
- borrowed from -ure (Old French), 'used to form usually feminine, usually abstract nouns'
- inherited from -tura (Latin), 'Used to form action nouns expressing concrete results as well as activities: -ing, -ure, -work'
- from root *-tew- (Proto-Indo-European)
- from root *-r-eh₂ (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited from -tura (Latin), 'Used to form action nouns expressing concrete results as well as activities: -ing, -ure, -work'
- borrowed from -ure (Old French), 'used to form usually feminine, usually abstract nouns'
- derived from plaisir (Middle English)
Direct ancestors
Updated March 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris