voluptuary

English

WOTD – 29 March 2021

Etymology

From French voluptuaire, or directly from its etymon Late Latin voluptuārius, from Latin voluptārius (“pleasure-seeker; agreeable, delightful, pleasant; sensual”), from voluptās (“delight, pleasure, satisfaction”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns). Voluptās is derived from volup (“with pleasure; agreeably, pleasantly, satisfactorily”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose; to want”)) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vəˈlʌptʃʊəɹi/, /vəˈlʌptʃʊɹi/, /vəˈlʌptʃɹi/, /-tjʊ-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /vəˈlʌpt͡ʃʊˌɛɹi/, /-ˈləp-/
• Hyphenation: vo‧lup‧tu‧a‧ry

Noun

voluptuary (plural voluptuaries)

1. One whose life is devoted to sensual appetites; a pleasure-seeker, a sensualist.

   Synonyms: voluptuarian; see also Thesaurus:sensualist

   • 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the Second]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume II, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 16:

     But Mrs. Cole, in oppoſition to this, aſſured me that the gentlemen I ſhould be preſented to, were, by their rank and taſte of things, infinitely ſuperior to the being touch'd with any glare of dreſs, or ornaments, ſuch as ſilly women rather confound, and overlay, than ſet off their beauty with; that theſe veteran voluptuaries knew better than not to hold them in the higheſt contempt, […]

   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter II, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 21:

     His features might have been called good, had there not lurked under the pent-house of his eye, that sly epicurean twinkle which indicates the cautious voluptuary.

   • 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Of Tom’s New Master, and Various Other Matters”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 236:

     St. Clare, who was in heart a poetical voluptuary, smiled as Miss Ophelia made her remark on his premises, […]

   • 1983, Lawrence Durrell, “The Dying Fall”, in Sebastian: Or Ruling Passions: […], London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, pages 161–162:

     "I told you so!" he said to himself under his breath, and breathing deeply like a voluptuary he advanced towards his victim.

   • 2004, Martin Torgoff, “Everybody Must Get Stoned”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 147:

     Dawn Reynolds was an eighteen-year-old alabaster beauty with cobalt eyes and the figure of a ripe voluptuary.

   • 2022 November 1, William Grimes, “Gael Greene, Who Shook Up Restaurant Reviewing, Dies at 88”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     She cast a knowing, amused eye over her surroundings, and shared the pleasures on her plate with the enthusiasm of a born voluptuary.

Derived terms

• voluptuarian
• voluptuate (rare)

Related terms

• volupté
• voluptuosity (rare or obsolete)
• voluptuous
• voluptuously
• voluptuousness
• volupty

 

Translations

one whose life is devoted to sensual appetites

• Bulgarian: сластолю́бец m (slastoljúbec), похотливец m (pohotlivec)
• Finnish: nautiskelija (fi)
• Greek:

  Ancient: τρυφητής m (truphētḗs)

• Hungarian: élvhajhász (hu), kéjenc (hu)
• Latin: dēliciae f, labda (la) m
• Russian: сластолю́бец (ru) m (slastoljúbec)
• Telugu: విటుడు (te) (viṭuḍu)

Adjective

voluptuary (comparative more voluptuary, superlative most voluptuary)

1. Of or relating to the seeking of sensual pleasure.

   Synonyms: sybaritic, voluptuarian; see also Thesaurus:hedonistic

   • 1605, Francis Bacon, “The Second Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folio 44, verso:

     For as it hath beene well obſerued, that the Arts which flouriſh in times, while vertue is in growth, are Militarie: and while vertue is in State are Liberall; and while vertue is in declination, are voluptuarie; ſo I doubt, that this age of the world, is ſomewhat vpon the deſcent of the wheele; with Arts voluptuarie, I couple practiſes Iocularie; for the deceiuing of the ſences, is one of the pleaſures of the ſences.

   • 1744, Cicero, “Book the Third”, in William Guthrie, transl., The Morals of Cicero. […], London: […] T. Waller, […], →OCLC, chapter III, page 149:

     As to mental Perturbations, which render the Lives of Fools miſerable and calamitous, […] All theſe Perturbations may be comprehended under four general Heads, but admit of many Subdiviſions. Their general Diviſion is into Uneaſineſs, Fear, Luſt, and that voluptuary Elevation of a wanton Spirit which I call Joy; though the Stoics generally term it both as applicable to Soul and Body, ἡδονη.

   • 1836 January–April, “Article IX. Memoirs of Lord Bolingbroke. By George Wingrove Cook[e], Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. London: 1835. [book review]”, in The British and Foreign Review; or, European Quarterly Journal, volume II, number III, London: James Ridgway and Sons, →OCLC, pages 231–232:

     He [Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke] takes infinite pains to persuade himself that God neither exerts any providence here, nor any retribution hereafter; and therefore the ambitious man may pursue power, and the voluptuary pleasure, to any excess, or in any form, without apprehending either any present compunction, or future punishment.

   • 1901–1903, John Tanner [pseudonym; George Bernard Shaw], “[The Revolutionist’s Handbook and Pocket Companion] Prudery Explained”, in Man and Superman. A Comedy and a Philosophy, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, →OCLC, page 199:

     When a great French writer, Emil Zola, alarmed at the sterilization of his nation, wrote an eloquent and powerful book to restore the prestige of parentage, it was at once assumed in England that a work of this character, with such a title as Fecundity, was too abominable to be translated, and that any attempt to deal with the relations of the sexes from any other than the voluptuary or romantic point of view must be sternly put down.

   • 1942, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Little Gidding”, in Four Quartets, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, published 1943, →OCLC, section I, stanza 2, pages 31–32:

     If you came this way, / Taking the route you would be likely to take / From the place you would be likely to come from, / If you came this way in may time, you would find the hedges / White again, in May, with voluptuary sweetness.

Translations

of or relating to the seeking of sensual pleasure

• Hungarian: élvhajhász (hu), élvhajhászó (hu)

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “voluptuary”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.