luscious

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lucius,^[2][3][4][5] found beside licius, which the Middle English Dictionary takes as shortened from Middle English delicious.^[2][3][4][6] Barnhart dates licius to before 1400 and lucius to about 1450,^[7][8] and the Middle English Dictionary suggests that the vowel of lucius was influenced by Old French luxure or lusure.^[2][9] The derivation from delicious was proposed by Skeat; the OED finds it phonetically unsatisfactory, but knows of nothing better, and calls the word of obscure origin.^[10] The American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster and the Oxford Dictionary of English give it only as "perhaps",^[11][5][12] Hoad calls it of uncertain origin,^[13] and Dictionary.com calls lucius an unexplained variant of licius.^[6] The Century Dictionary instead suggested lusty with a pseudo-Latin ending.^[9] Weekley and the Shorter Oxford connect its sense with lush,^[4][14] and Johnson (1755) reported Skinner's derivation from luxurious.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of food or perfume, sweet and highly pleasant to taste or smell: about 1420, in the Anturs of Arther.^[10] Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century,^[9] and the Middle English Dictionary records licius, delicious, about 1400, in a herbal that calls the fruit of the juniper sweet and licious to eat.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word described rich sweetness; in Palsgrave (1530) it could also mean sweet to excess, cloying.^[10] Johnson (1755) gave "sweet, so as to nauseate" as its first sense and quoted Shakespeare's Othello: "as luscious as loches".^[15] From the 17th century it was carried over to things of the mind: language or style that pleases the ear, often with a suggestion of excess (1651);^[10] between 1614 and 1815 it also described talk or writing that appealed to lascivious tastes.^[10] Ruskin applied it to colour and design in 1849.^[10] In modern use it also means very attractive, especially sexually,^[16][5] and in the dialects of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire it was used for rank and foul-smelling.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1420 – of food or perfume, sweet and highly pleasant.^[10]
• 1530 – sweet to excess, cloying.^[10]
• 1614 – of talk or writing, voluptuous, lascivious (obsolete by 1815).^[10]
• 1651 – of language or style, highly pleasing, often too sweet.^[10]
• 1742 – of a young person (obsolete).^[10]
• 1849 – of colouring or design.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a rich, delicious taste or smell; juicy and sweet: a bowl of luscious ripe plums.^[16][5][10]
2. Very pleasing to the senses or the mind; richly appealing: luscious velvet curtains.^[16][5]
3. Very attractive, especially in a sensual way.^[16][5]
4. (archaic) Sweet to excess; cloying.^[16][5][10]

Word family

• lusciously
• lusciousness
• overluscious

Related words

• delicious
• lush

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
8. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ 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)