extravaganza

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian estravaganza (“extravagance”),^[2][3][4][5] more commonly stravaganza,^[2][4][6] from estravagante (“extravagant”), also stravagante,^[3][4][6] from Medieval Latin extrāvagāns, the present participle of extrāvagor (“to wander”),^[3][7] which is formed from Latin extrā (“outside”) and vagor (“to wander, roam”).^[7] In English the Italian initial “es-” was refashioned as “ex-” after Latin extrā-,^[2][8][5] or under the influence of extravagance;^[6] Dictionary.com calls the word an alteration of the Italian form.^[9] The same Medieval Latin participle is the source of extravagant.^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bombastic extravagance of language or behaviour: 1754, in the Connoisseur.^[2][4] Etymonline likewise dates the word to 1754, of peculiar behaviour,^[7] and Dictionary.com to 1745–55.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Italian the word meant an extravagance, an oddity of behaviour, and the first English use kept that sense, which the Shorter Oxford now labels rare.^[8][2] From the 1790s it was used of a composition, literary, musical or dramatic, of a fantastic or extravagant character: the OED's first record is from 1797, in T. J. Mathias's Pursuits of Literature,^[2] while the 1989 edition of the OED and Etymonline date this sense to 1794.^[10][7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged describes such literary fantasies as freely imaginative and often burlesque or parodic, and the musical kind as free in form.^[4] In 1860 the word was used once for an extravagance in dress,^[2][10] and the OED records extravaganzist, a writer of extravaganzas, from before 1849.^[10] The modern general sense, any lavish or spectacular show or display, is given by Collins and the American Heritage Dictionary.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 1754 – extravagance of language or behaviour.^[2][4]
• 1797 – a literary, musical or dramatic composition of a fantastic character; the 1989 edition of the OED and Etymonline give 1794.^[2][10][7]
• before 1849 – extravaganzist, a writer of extravaganzas.^[10]
• 1860 – an extravagance in dress.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An elaborate and lavish entertainment or display: The town staged a fireworks extravaganza for its anniversary.^[11][12]
2. An elaborately staged and costumed light theatrical entertainment.^[11]
3. A literary work of free fantasy in subject and structure, often with elements of burlesque or parody.^[4][2]
4. A musical composition free in form and often burlesque in character.^[4][12]
5. (rare) Extravagance of language or behaviour.^[8][2]

Related words

• extravagant
• extravagance
• extra-
• vague

Usage notes

Grammarphobia notes that the clipped vaganza, though absent from standard dictionaries, is used online both as a synonym of extravaganza and for a lesser one.^[13] The word also forms blends such as eggstravaganza, for Easter events, which Barry Popik finds in a Kansas newspaper of 1903.^[14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "Vaganza: a mini-extravaganza?", 2 August 2012
14. ^ Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Easter Eggstravaganza", 15 April 2017