Etymologically
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extravagant

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Pronunciation

  • /ɪkˈstɹævəɡənt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English extravagaunt,[2][3] in its first, canon-law sense borrowed from Medieval Latin extrāvagāns (“wandering outside or beyond”),[4][5][3][6] the present participle of extrāvagor,[5][7][8][9] formed from extrā (“outside”) and vagor (“to wander, roam”).[5][7][8][6] The wider sense was reinforced in the late 16th century by Middle French extravagant,[4][3][2] which is recorded in French from the 14th century,[4] and Italian stravagante and estravagante also had a share in it:[4][6] the OED's quotations for the English form stravagant, from the Italian, are somewhat earlier than those for the general sense of extravagant.[4][10] The Latin verb is also the source of vagabond, vagary and vagrant.[8][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

In canon law, of papal decrees not included in the official collections, the constituciouns extravagaunt: 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Ayto suggests that the Medieval Latin participle was first used of these uncodified, "stray" decrees.[8] In the 15th century the English word also meant rambling, irrelevant, or extraordinary and unusual;[5][3][11] the OED's quotations for "widely divergent; irrelevant" run from 1601 to 1665, and for "strange, unsuitable" from 1650 to 1701.[4] The literal sense "wandering beyond bounds" is best known from Hamlet (1604), where the ghost is "th' extravagant and erring spirit";[4][12] Merriam-Webster's Word Histories points out that both adjectives there are used in their literal sense of wandering.[12][4][13] Johnson (1755) called this "the primogeneal sense, but not now in use".[13] From the 1590s, probably under French influence, the word meant exceeding the bounds of reason or propriety, excessive or absurd (Shakespeare, 1598);[5][4] the sense "spending too much, wasteful" is first recorded in Addison's Spectator in 1711, and "exorbitant", of prices, from 1707.[4][5] Ayto and Word Origins agree that the present senses only became established in the early 18th century.[8][11]

Timeline

  • 1387 – of papal decrees outside the official collections.[4][3]
  • before 1425 – extraordinary, unusual.[3][5]
  • 1598 – excessive, going beyond reason or propriety.[4]
  • 1601 – widely divergent, irrelevant (obsolete by 1665).[4]
  • 1604 – wandering beyond bounds, in Hamlet.[4][12]
  • 1707 – of prices, exorbitant.[4]
  • 1711 – of people, wasteful, spending too much.[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Spending much more money than is sensible or necessary; wasteful, prodigal: an extravagant host.[14][2][4]
  2. Going beyond reasonable limits; excessive or unrestrained: She was embarrassed by his extravagant compliments.[14][2][4]
  3. Costing too much; exorbitant: extravagant fees.[14][4]
  4. Showy and elaborate; ostentatious.[14][2]
  5. (archaic) Wandering, roaming beyond bounds.[2][4][13]

Word family

  • extravagantly
  • extravagantness
  • extravagancy
  • overextravagant
  • unextravagant
  • vagabond
  • extravagance
  • extravaganza
  • vagary
  • vagrant
  • vague
  • extravagate
  • extra-

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins