Other forms: satisfied, satisfying, satisfies
To satisfy someone is to give them enough of what they wanted, so the wanting stops. A bowl of soup satisfies your hunger; a straight answer satisfies the neighbour who has been complaining all week.
The second life of satisfy is official: you satisfy a condition, satisfy the entry requirements, satisfy the terms of a contract — meaning you meet them fully, not halfway. You can also satisfy yourself that something is true, which means checking until you are convinced: she satisfied herself that the back door was locked. The family around it is large — satisfied, satisfying, satisfaction, dissatisfied, unsatisfactory — and satisfied takes with: satisfied with the result. Note how modest the word is: a satisfied customer is not a delighted one, only one who got what was promised.
1verbsatisfyTo give someone enough of what they wanted or needed.
“Nothing on the menu satisfied him.”
2verbmeetTo meet a requirement, condition or standard fully.
“The building does not satisfy the new fire regulations.”
synonyms: meet, fulfil
3verbconvinceTo convince someone that something is true or safe.
“The inspector satisfied himself that the wiring was sound.”
Satisfy is Latin arithmetic: satis, 'enough', joined to facere, 'to make or do'. To satisfy is to make enough — you keep adding until the person stops asking. It reached English through Old French satisfier, and the Latin sum is still there in the spelling.
Proto-Indo-European
*seh₂-
Old French
satisfier
Middle English
satisfyen
English, today
satisfy
Built from
From Middle English satisfyen, from Old French satisfier. From Middle English satisfyen, satisfien, from Old French satisfiier, satisfier (also Old French satisfaire), from Latin satisfaciō, from satis (“enough, sufficient”) + faciō (“to make; to do”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA