Sardanapalian

American  

[sahr-dn-uh-peyl-yuhn, -pey-lee-uhn] / ˌsɑr dn əˈpeɪl yən, -ˈpeɪ li ən /

adjective

1. excessively luxurious or sensual.

---

Etymology

Origin of Sardanapalian

1865–70; Sardanapal ( us ) a legendary Assyrian king proverbial for his decadence (< Latin < Greek Sardanápal ( l ) os, perhaps ultimately < Akkadian Aššur-ban-apli Ashurbanipal) + -ian

Example Sentences

They copy the luxuries, the inborn vices of the blue blood of Europe's crowned Sardanapalian autocrats.

From The Little Lady of Lagunitas A Franco-Californian Romance by Savage, Richard

The cacique was taken prisoner and with him his entire Sardanapalian court.

From De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2) The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera by MacNutt, Francis Augustus

The first movement has the martial pomp and hauteur and the Sardanapalian opulence and color that mark 294 a barbaric triumph.

From Contemporary American Composers Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and Compositions by Hughes, Rupert

Steeped in luxurious indulgence—in the exercise of petty spites and Sardanapalian excesses—confident in the vigilance of their trusted sentinel, Wellington—they had not perceived the storm till it came tearing over them.

From The Child Wife by Reid, Mayne

And it was for this, then, that all these Sardanapalian accusations had been piled upon my head.

From Eyes Like the Sea by Jókai, Mór