extravagance

Etymology

It is borrowed from French extravagance,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from extravagant,^[5][4] which goes back to the stem of Medieval Latin extrāvagāns,^[2][3][7] present participle of extrāvagor (“to wander outside or beyond”),^[3][2][7] formed from Latin extrā (“outside”) and vagor (“to wander, roam”).^[3] The OED and Etymonline call that participle Late Latin, and the Oxford Dictionary of English medieval.^[2][3][7] The related extravagancy has been recorded since about 1600.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A going out of the usual path, a digression or straying: 1644, in Milton's Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, "A doctrine of that extravagance from the sage principles of piety".^[2][8] Etymonline dates the sense "an extravagant act" to the 1640s,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1640 for its sense of an instance of excess.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the literal idea of the Latin verb, wandering out of bounds, only briefly: that sense ends in 1656.^[2] By 1650, in T. Fuller, an extravagance could be an irrational notion or an absurd piece of conduct.^[2] From 1676, in Etherege's Man of Mode, the word also named the quality of exceeding the limits of decorum, probability or truth.^[2][3] Excess in money came last, in Arbuthnot's Tables of Ancient Coins (1727),^[2][3] about the same time as the adjective extravagant gained the sense "wasteful", from 1711,^[3] and this is now the first meaning in Collins.^[9] Before the word existed, Middle English could express the idea with to-mochelhede, literally "too-much-hood".^[3]

Timeline

• 1644 – a going out of the usual path, a digression (obsolete by 1656).^[2]
• 1650 – an instance of excess, an absurdity.^[2]
• 1676 – the quality of exceeding proper limits.^[2][3]
• 1727 – excessive spending, wastefulness.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Excessive or wasteful spending; prodigality: Their extravagance left them deep in debt.^[9][2][4]
2. Something costly that one could do without; a luxury: A weekend in Lisbon was a rare extravagance.^[4][9]
3. The quality of going beyond reason or decorum; immoderate speech or behaviour.^[9][2][4]
4. An instance of such excess; an absurdity.^[2][4]
5. (obsolete, 1644–56) A wandering from a set course; a digression.^[2][4][8]

Related words

• extravaganza
• extravagancy
• extravagate
• extravagant
• vague

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins