lavish

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English laves, also lavas and lavage,^[2][3][4] most probably borrowed from Middle French lavasse (“downpour, torrent of rain, deluge”), also lavache,^[5][3][4][6] called Old French in the OED and Etymonline.^[7][8] The OED and Hoad take the adjective as a use of the earlier noun meaning profusion, the form borrowed from French,^[7][9] while Barnhart notes that the adjective (1469) is recorded before the noun (1483) and treats the noun only as a possible source.^[3] The French word comes from laver (“to wash”), from Latin lavō (“to wash”),^{[5][8][3][10]} from Proto-Indo-European *leue- (“to wash”);^[8] the OED compares Old French lavis (“a torrent of words”).^[7][9][11] The ending was later assimilated to -ish.^[9][12] Skeat instead derived it from the obsolete verb lave, to pour out, with the suffix -ish,^[13] and Johnson found "no satisfactory etymology".^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Extravagant, wasteful: 1469, in a Paston letter warning against laves expences, lavish spending.^[2][3] The noun, profusion or extravagant outpouring, is first recorded in 1483, in Caxton's translation of the Golden Legend.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of people who give or spend without measure, often in the bad sense "wasteful, extravagant".^[7][2] From about 1485 it was used of speech, unrestrained or effusive, especially in lavish of one's tongue;^[7][11] Weekley notes that the adjective first appears in that phrase, and quotes Caxton's Ther was no lavas in their speche.^[11] Shakespeare used it in 1600 for wild or licentious conduct, a sense now obsolete.^[7] From 1576 it described the things given or produced, profuse or abundant,^[7] and since 1882 rich, sumptuous food, dress or decoration.^[7] The verb, to spend or bestow profusely, is a conversion of the adjective, first in Udall's translation of Erasmus's Apophthegms (1542).^[7][3][5] The noun was used in standard English only until 1597,^[7] but MWU records it as still in dialect use.^[5] In Gloucestershire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall dialect lavish (also lavidge) meant rank, overgrown grass, and loose talk.^[15][7]

Timeline

• 1469 – laves, extravagant, wasteful, in the Paston Letters.^[2][3]
• c. 1475 – lavage, glossing Latin prodigus, in the Catholicon Anglicum.^[2][7]
• c. 1477 – lauesshenes, lavishness.^[3]
• 1483 – noun, profusion, extravagant outpouring (obsolete by 1597).^[7][3]
• c. 1485 – of speech, unrestrained, effusive.^[7]
• 1542 – verb, to spend or bestow profusely.^[7][3][5]
• 1576 – of things, produced in profusion, abundant.^[7]
• c. 1730 – dialect, of grass or wheat, rank, overgrown.^[7][15]
• 1882 – of food, clothing or decoration, sumptuous, luxurious.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Rich, sumptuous or luxurious; elaborate: a lavish wedding reception.^[7][16]
2. Giving or spending without limit; very generous or prodigal: She was lavish with her praise.^[16][5][7]
3. Produced or given in great amounts; profuse, abundant.^[16][7]
4. Too free with money; extravagant, wasteful.^[16][7]

Verb

1. To give, spend or apply something very freely or in great quantity (often followed by on or upon): They lavished attention on their grandson.^[16][5][7]

Noun

1. (obsolete, 1483–1597; dialectal in MWU) An abundant outpouring; profusion.^[7][5]

Word family

• lavisher
• lavishly
• lavishness
• unlavished
• overlavish
• unlavish

Related words

• lave
• lavatory
• lava
• launder
• lotion
• deluge

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins