sumptuary
Americanadjective
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pertaining to, dealing with, or regulating expense or expenditure.
-
intended to regulate personal habits on moral or religious grounds.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of sumptuary
1590–1600; < Latin sūmptuārius, equivalent to sūmptu ( s ) spending, expense ( sūm ( ere ) to take, procure ( see consume) + intrusive -p- + -tus suffix of v. action) + -ārius -ary
Explanation
Use the adjective sumptuary to talk about rules that control spending. You're most likely to see it in historical documents, in the context of "sumptuary laws" or "sumptuary regulations." This adjective denoting restrictiveness in spending or behavior has fallen out of fashion in the modern age, and perhaps just as well: it looks confusingly similar to sumptuous, whose meaning is opposite in spirit. Both words are derived from Latin sumptus, which means "expense or expensive."
Vocabulary lists containing sumptuary
The Scarlet Letter
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The Handmaid's Tale
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This Week In Culture: November 9–15, 2019
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
However, sumptuary laws dictated what women could and could not wear, elite men kept concubines, and the Tang legal system considered women property.
From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023
The Renaissance-era sumptuary laws that Walweyn and Bradshaw faced aren’t the only ones that demonstrate an effort to either impose or dismantle a social hierarchy.
From Slate • Feb. 10, 2021
Black took on an air of cultured urbanity beginning in the Renaissance, when so-called sumptuary laws limited the wearing of rich colors like red and purple to the aristocracy.
From New York Times • Nov. 11, 2019
Many such stratified societies also regulate consumption through sumptuary laws, which enforce social hierarchies by regulating consumption according to social rank.
From Scientific American • May 8, 2015
I mumble thanks for the advice, feeling like I’ve just been stripped naked by the crazed enforcer of some ancient sumptuary law: No chatting for you, girl.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
