satisfice
English
WOTD – 25 February 2016
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsætɪsfaɪs/
Audio (UK) (file)
Etymology 1
1560, Northern alteration of satisfy, probably influenced in form by Latin satisfacere.
Verb
satisfice (third-person singular simple present satisfices, present participle satisficing, simple past and past participle satisficed)
- (obsolete, transitive) To satisfy.
Etymology 2
Blend of satisfy + suffice, coined by American political scientists and psychologist Herbert A. Simon in 1956.
Verb
satisfice (third-person singular simple present satisfices, present participle satisficing, simple past and past participle satisficed)
- (sociology, intransitive) Of human behavior: to make a choice that suffices to fulfill the minimum requirements to achieve an objective, without special regard for utility maximization or optimization of one's preferences.
- 1956, H[erbert] A. Simon, “Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment”, in Psychological Review, volume 63, number 2, page 129:
- Evidently, organisms adapt well enough to ‘satisfice’; they do not, in general, ‘optimize’.
- 2015 December 4, David Brooks, “No, Donald Trump won't win [print version: International New York Times, 5–6 December 2015, page 9]”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 16 December 2015:
- [T]here are two contrasting types of decision-making mentalities, maximizing and satisficing. If you're choosing a marriage partner, you probably want to maximize. You want to find the very best person you are totally in love with. […] But politics is not like that. Politics is a prosaic activity most of the time. You probably want to satisfice, pick the person who's good enough, who seems reasonably responsible.
-
See also
- satisficer
References
- “satisfice”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- “satisfice” at The Phrontistery – A Dictionary of Obscure Words.
- Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
Spanish
Verb
satisfice
- first-person singular preterite indicative of satisfacer