algedonic

adj

Etymology: From Ancient Greek ἄλγος (álgos, “pain”) + ἡδονή (hēdonḗ) ‘pleasure’. Coined by Henry Rutgers Marshall in 1894.

1. Pertaining to both pleasure and pain.

   “I have restrained myself, however, from the temptation to invent terms except in one particular, viz. in the word “algedonic” […] which I use adjectively to describe any phase of pain-pleasure experience […].”

   “For him even the most painful social confrontations and contrasts, which would have stabbed the conscience of even the vulgarest nouveau riche, were stingless. Without significance except as vignettes, as interesting discords, as pleasurable because vivid examples of the algedonic polarity of existence.”

2. Relating to algedonics.