luxurious

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English luxurious, also luxorious and luxsorious,^[2] borrowed from Old French luxurios (“lustful, lascivious”),^[3][4][5][2] modern luxurieux,^[3][6][5] from Latin luxuriōsus (“immoderate, excessive; voluptuous”),^[3][6][7] from luxuria (“excess, extravagant living”),^[3][6][8] the source of luxury.^[3][6] The Anglo-Norman form luxurius is recorded from 1121–35, meaning lustful or lecherous.^[9] Merriam-Webster takes the English word through luxurieux.^[8] Luxuria comes from luxus (“excess, extravagance”), which Etymonline thinks is probably a figurative use of an adjective meaning "dislocated".^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lustful, lecherous: about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin, of devils that "euer be luxsorius".^[6][2] Etymonline dates it to about 1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word began with the sense the Latin and French words had of sinful excess, chiefly lust,^[3][4] as did luxury, which lost its bad sense only in the 17th century.^[3] Alongside "lecherous" Middle English used it for "outrageous, excessive", as Chaucer did once in his Boece (about 1374);^[6][2][10] both senses are obsolete, "lecherous" by the end of the 17th century.^[6][5] The modern senses followed the change in luxury: of people, "given to luxury, self-indulgent" from 1606,^[6][3] and of things, "marked by luxury, sumptuously comfortable" from 1650.^[6][3] Johnson (1755) still gave "lustful; libidinous", quoting Shakespeare's "the heat of a luxurious bed", beside "delighting in the pleasures of the table".^[11] From 1644 it was also used for luxuriant, of growth, a sense now rare.^[6][5]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – lascivious, lecherous (obsolete by about 1697).^[6][2]
• c. 1374 – outrageous, excessive, in Chaucer (obsolete by about 1665).^[6]
• 1606 – of people, given to luxury, self-indulgent.^[6]
• 1644 – luxuriant, of growth (now rare).^[6]
• 1650 – of things, characterized by luxury.^[6]
• 1755 – Johnson gives "delighting in the pleasures of the table" and "lustful".^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Marked by luxury; very comfortable, rich and costly: a luxurious hotel suite.^[7][8][5]
2. Fond of or given to luxury; self-indulgent or voluptuous.^[7][5][6]
3. Giving or expressing great pleasure to the senses: a long, luxurious stretch.^[8]
4. (rare) luxuriant, of growth.^[6][5]
5. (obsolete, c. 1330–1697) lecherous, lascivious.^{[6][5][7][11]}

Word family

• luxuriousness
• luxuriously
• overluxurious
• superluxurious
• unluxurious

Related words

• luxuriant
• luxuriate
• luxury

Usage notes

Luxurious is sometimes used by mistake for luxuriant, "growing thickly": a luxuriant moustache or growth of wisteria, not a luxurious one.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ 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.