decadent

Etymology

From French décadent, back-formation from décadence, from Medieval Latin decadentia, from Late Latin decadens (“decadens”), present participle of Late Latin decadō (“sink, fall”). Cognate with French décadent

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛkədənt/

Adjective

decadent (comparative more decadent, superlative most decadent)

1. Characterized by moral or cultural decline.
   • Gore Vidal - The Decline and Fall of the American Empire (1992)

     As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

2. Luxuriously self-indulgent.
   • Hedonismbot in the Futurama episode "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings"

     Surgery in an opera? How wonderfully decadent! And just as I was beginning to lose interest!

Noun

decadent (plural decadents)

1. A person affected by moral decay.
   • L. Douglas

     He had the fastidiousness, the preciosity, the love of archaisms, of your true decadent.

Anagrams

• decanted