Etymograph

English

Sybaritic

Sybaritic comes from Latin Sybarīticus ‘of or pertaining to Sybaris or its inhabitants’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CESybarīticus‘of or pertaining to Sybaris or its inhabitants’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1777Sybaritic

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CESybarīticus‘of or pertaining to Sybaris or its inhabitants’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1777Sybaritic

Earliest quotation: 1777, Richard Bentley, Samuel Salter: “This last passage of Jamblichuns, where he intimates that…”

Formed from Sybarite ‘inhabitant of Sybaris’ + -ic

The story

Learned borrowing from Latin Sybarīticus (‘of or pertaining to Sybaris or its inhabitants’) + English -ic (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, forming adjectives from nouns). Sybarīticus is derived from Ancient Greek Συβαρῑτικός (Subarītikós), from Σῠβᾰρῑ́της (Sŭbărī́tēs, “(noun) inhabitant of Sybaris; (adjective) decadent; self-indulgent”) (from Σῠ́βᾰρῐς (Sŭ́bărĭs, “Sybaris”) + -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs, suffix forming demonyms)) + -κός (-kós, suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, forming adjectives). The English word is analysable as Sybarite (‘inhabitant of Sybaris’) + -ic. Sybaris, a city of Magna Graecia (the coastal parts of Sicily and southern Italy once colonized by Greek settlers), was known for its wealth and the excesses and hedonism of its inhabitants.

Every English word from Latin Sybarīticus

Today it means

adj Of or relating to Sybaris or its inhabitants.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin Sybarīticus / Sybaritic

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