Etymology 1
Alteration (after words such as satiate and satisfy) of earlier sade (“to weary, satiate, satisfy”), from Middle English saden (“to weary, satisfy, become wearied or satiated”), from Old English sadian (“to satisfy, satiate, fill, be sated, become wearied”), from Proto-West Germanic *sadōn (“to satiate, become satisfied”), from Proto-Germanic *sadaz (“sated”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂- (“to satiate, be satisfied”). Cognate with Middle Low German saden, Middle High German saten (“to saturate, satisfy, satiate”), Icelandic seðja (“to satisfy”). Doublet of sad.
Verb
sate (third-person singular simple present sates, present participle sating, simple past and past participle sated)
- To satisfy the appetite or desire of; to fill up.
- Synonyms: satiate, fill up
At last he stopped, his hunger and thirst sated.
1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:Indeed his rendering is so excellent an example of mediæval learning and latinity that, even at the risk of sating the learned reader with too many antiquities, I have made up my mind to give it in fac-simile, together with an expanded version for the benefit of those who find the contractions troublesome.
[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:And still the hours passed, and at last I knew by the glimmer of light in the tomb above that the sun had risen again, and a maddening thirst had hold of me. And then I thought of all the barrels piled up in the vault and of the liquor that they held; and stuck not because 'twas spirit, for I would scarce have paused to sate that thirst even with molten lead.
Usage notes
Used interchangeably with, though less common than, satiate.[1]
Etymology 2
From Middle English sate, satte, from Old English sæt, first and third person singular preterite of sittan (“to sit”).
Verb
sate
- (dated, poetic) simple past and past participle of sit
1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume III (A Legend of Montrose), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 274:So saying, she sate down at a little distance upon the bench on which Allan M‘Aulay was placed, and tuning her clairshach, a small harp, about thirty inches in height, she accompanied it with her voice.
1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 24–25:[…] and I am old enough to remember how often I have seen the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire, about eight in the morning (when I was at Bath in 91 or 92), returning from the parade, where she had sate up the live-long night with her sister, Lady Duncannon; it can therefore be no disgrace to appear as if you felt for your daughter.
1896, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] LXII”, in A Shropshire Lad, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, The Bodley Head, published 1906, →OCLC, page 94:[…] And easy, smiling, seasoned sound, / Sate the king when healths went round.
Anagrams
- AEST, ESTA, East, SEAT, Seat, TEAs, east, eats, etas, seat, seta, tase, teas