A very heavy word, masochistic describes sexual behavior that involves partners hurting or abusing each other for pleasure. This adjective also is used for describing people who enjoy pain of any other kind.
In the early 19th century, an individual with the last name Sacher-Masoch had some deviant, or abnormal, thoughts regarding sexuality. His name became the German noun Masochismus and, eventually, the English adjective masochistic. Sometimes masochistic is used incorrectly or as slang to refer to someone who just does something mean, as in "taking the wings off of flies is masochistic," implying that the person enjoys the pain of another, when the word really is specific to the person receiving pain. (It's a sadistic person who enjoys inflicting pain on someone else.)
