splurge

Etymology

The word is of uncertain origin, first recorded in American English.^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, the American Heritage Dictionary, Barnhart and Dictionary.com take it as perhaps a blend from English splash + surge,^{[5][6][4][7][2]} while the OED and the Oxford Dictionary of English call it imitative,^[8][9] Klein probably imitative^[10] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford symbolic.^[11][12] Etymonline notes that it was at first counted among the words typical of "Western" speech, which then meant Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi.^[2] The verb is from the noun.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An ostentatious display or effort, also in to cut a splurge, to show off: 1828, in the Talisman for 1829.^[8][2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the noun to 1830.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

At first the noun meant blustering or showy display, and the verb, recorded by 1839 in the participle splurged, meant to make such a display or show off;^[2][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart date the verb to 1843 and the OED to 1844.^[5][4][8] Thornton's American Glossary cites an 1848 use for speaking at large and appealing to broad principles.^[2] The meaning moved from doing something to excess to spending lavishly: the noun is recorded in the sense "extravagant indulgence, especially in spending" from 1928,^[8][4][2] and the verb in the sense "to spend extravagantly" from 1934 in the OED and Barnhart, by 1927 in Etymonline.^[8][4][2] The OED also records a heavy splash or downpour (1879) and a verb "to splash heavily" (1887), and in journalism a large showy advertisement or feature (1960).^[8] In slang a splurge was a rush or sudden movement (1840), and among American teenagers in the 1980s the verb meant to leave.^[13]

Timeline

• 1828 – an ostentatious display or effort, also in to cut a splurge.^[8][2]
• 1839 – verb, to make an ostentatious display, implied in splurged.^[2]
• 1840 – slang, a rush, a sudden movement.^[13]
• 1879 – a heavy splash or downpour.^[8]
• 1928 – a sudden extravagant indulgence, especially in spending.^[8][4][2]
• 1934 – verb, to spend money extravagantly.^[8][4]
• 1960 – in journalism, a large or showy advertisement or feature.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sudden bout of extravagant spending or self-indulgence: After the exams they went on a shopping splurge.^[3][8][5]
2. An ostentatious display, especially of wealth.^[3][5][8]
3. (journalism) A large or showy advertisement or feature.^[8][12]

Verb

1. To spend money freely or extravagantly, often followed by on: He splurged on a new watch.^[3][5][8]
2. To indulge oneself in an unusual pleasure or luxury.^[5]
3. To make a showy display; to show off.^[5][8]

Word family

• splurgy
• splurgily

Related words

• splash
• surge

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com