Etymologically
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lavish

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈlævɪʃ/[1]

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

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