extravagant

Forms

extravagant (feminine extravagante, masculine plural extravagants, feminine plural extravagantes)^[1] First written extravacant (1374), refashioned as extravagant between 1379 and 1389.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin extravagans, a scholastic Latin word first applied to the papal constitutions not included in the decretals.^[3][2][4] The word is a compound of extrā (“outside”) and the present participle of vagor (“to wander”).^[3][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, written extravacant, is in J. Goulain's Rational (1374), in the canon-law sense “not included in the canonical collections”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Between 1379 and 1389 it was applied to excessive spending, in despense extravagant in the accounts of a church fabric.^[3][2] In the middle of the 16th century, as in Amyot's Plutarch, it came to mean “odd, eccentric, against common sense”, of people, ideas and actions, covering some uses of fou.^[2][3][6] From 1663, in Molière, it was said of a person whose reason is disordered.^[2][7] The canon-law sense is now obsolete.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1374 – Extravacant is used in canon law.^[3][2]
• 1379–1389 – Despense extravagant “excessive spending” is recorded.^[3]
• 16th century – Amyot uses it for “bizarre, unreasonable”.^[3][6]
• 1538 – The verb extravaguer is recorded.^[4]
• 1571 – The adverb extravagamment is first recorded.^[3]
• 1663 – Molière uses it of a person whose reason is disordered.^[7][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Going beyond the bounds of good sense, at once out of the ordinary and unreasonable: une tenue extravagante.^[8][3]
2. Of prices or spending: excessive.^[8][2]
3. (canon law, obsolete) Not included in the canonical collections.^[8][2]

Noun

1. An extravagant person, one who acts against common sense.^[7][6]

Word family

• extravagance
• extravaguer
• extravagamment

Related words

• vaguer
• Latin vagor

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert