extravagance

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French extravagance, from Medieval Latin extra + vagor (“to wander”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈstɹævəɡəns/
• Hyphenation: ex‧trav‧a‧gance

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

extravagance (countable and uncountable, plural extravagances)

1. Excessive or superfluous expenditure of money.
2. Prodigality, as of anger, love, expression, imagination, or demands.
   • 1803, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey:

     The visions of romance were over. Catherine was completely awakened. Henry’s address, short as it had been, had more thoroughly opened her eyes to the extravagance of her late fancies than all their several disappointments had done.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:

     A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.

3. Something extravagant; something done out of extravagance.

   That luxury car is an extravagance you can't afford.

Synonyms

• lavishness
• profusion
• wildness
• irregularity
• excess
• prodigality
• profusion
• waste
• unreasonableness
• recklessness

Antonyms

• frugality
• economize
• moderation

Related terms

• extravagancies
• extravagancy
• extravagantly
• extravaganza
• extravagate
• extravagation

 

Translations

excessive expenditure

• Arabic: إِسْرَاف m (ʔisrāf), تَبْذِير m (tabḏīr), سَرَف m (saraf)
• Bulgarian: разточителство (bg) n (raztočitelstvo)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 奢侈 (zh) (shēchǐ), 揮霍／挥霍 (zh) (huīhuò)

• Finnish: tuhlailu
• French: extravagance (fr) f
• Greek: χλιδή (el) f (chlidí), υπερβολή (el) f (ypervolí)
• Irish: anchaitheamh m
• Japanese: 贅沢 (ja) (ぜいたく, zeitaku)
• Latin: prōdigentia f
• Persian: ولخرجی (fa) (velxarji)
• Polish: ekstrawagancja (pl) f
• Romanian: extravaganță (ro)
• Russian: расточительство (ru) n (rastočitelʹstvo), транжирство (ru) n (tranžirstvo)
• Scottish Gaelic: ana-caitheamh m

prodigality

• Bulgarian: чудатост (bg) f (čudatost)
• Catalan: extravagància f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 過度／过度 (zh) (guòdù), 過分／过分 (zh) (guòfèn)

• Dutch: buitensporigheid (nl) f
• Finnish: ylenpalttisuus (fi)
• French: extravagance (fr) f
• Ivatan: kawaw
• Romanian: risipă (ro) f
• Scottish Gaelic: ana-caitheamh m
• Spanish: extravagancia (es) f
• Tagalog: kabulagsakan

something extravagant

•  Chinese:

   Mandarin: 奢侈品 (zh) (shēchǐpǐn), 鋪張浪費／铺张浪费 (zh) (pūzhānglàngfèi)

•  Finnish: ylenpalttisuus (fi)
•  French: extravagance (fr) f

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛk.stʁa.va.ɡɑ̃s/
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

extravagance f (plural extravagances)

1. extravagance
   • 1837 Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche^{fr.Wikisource}, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter I:

     Sa curiosité et son extravagance arrivèrent à ce point qu’il vendit plusieurs arpents de bonnes terres à labourer pour acheter des livres de chevalerie à lire.

     His curiosity and his extravagance came to the point that he sold several arpents of good working land to buy books of chivalry to read.

Related terms

• extravagant
  • extravagamment

Further reading

• “extravagance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.