Dictionary

assignation en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /æsɪɡˈneɪʃən/
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Middle English assignacioun, from Old French assignacion, from Latin assīgnātiō.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) An appointment for a meeting, generally of a romantic or sexual nature.
   • What assignations followed we can never know, except that, according to Morrie, Rick did once boast that there was more than cake and lemon barley waiting for him up at The Glades when he delivered the church magazine. 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
   • ‘That you could dare to imagine we’d fail conversationally to countenance certain weekly shall we say maternal … assignations with a certain unnamed bisexual bassoonist in the Albertan Secret Guard’s tactical-bands unit?’ 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 30:
   • As soon as Mr. Barville saw me, he got up, with a visible air of pleasure and surprize, and saluting me, asked Mrs. Cole if it was possible that so fine and delicate a creature would voluntarily submit to such sufferings and rigours as were the subject of his assignation. 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:
   • While nymphs take treats, or assignations give. 1714, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, canto III:
   • These perfumeries were also used as places of assignation and sexual rendezvous. 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 162:
2. (countable, uncountable) The act of assigning or allotting; apportionment.
   • This order being taken in the senate, as touching the appointment and assignation of those provinces. 1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “(please specify the book number)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC:
3. (countable, uncountable) A making over by transfer of title; assignment.

Forms

Deriveds

house of assignation

Synonyms

tryst

Translations (2)

fr rendez-vous secret (An appointment for a meeting) · pl asygnacja (the act of assigning or allotting)