sybarite
UK /ˈsɪbəɹaɪt/ · US /ˈsɪbəˌɹaɪt/ noun, adjective
Forms sybarites
- noun A person devoted to luxury and pleasure; a hedonist.
- adjective Synonym of sybaritic (“of or having the qualities of a sybarite; dedicated to excessive comfort and enjoyment; decadent, hedonistic, self-indulgent”).
- noun A native or inhabitant of Sybaris.
Synonyms
voluptuary bon viveur epicure epicurean hedonist high-stepper lapling lotus-eater pleasure seeker pleasurist sensualist softling voluptuarian sybaritic sybaritical Babylonian decadent epicureal epicureous epicurish
Antonyms
Etymology
The noun is a learned borrowing from Latin Sybarīta + English -ite (suffix forming demonyms). Sybarīta is derived from Ancient Greek Σῠβᾰρῑ́της (Sŭbărī́tēs, “(noun) inhabitant of Sybaris; (adjective) decadent; self-indulgent”), from Σῠ́βᾰρῐς (Sŭ́bărĭs, “Sybaris”) + -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs, suffix forming demonyms)). 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.
The adjective is derived from the noun.
From Sybaris + -ite.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A person devoted to luxury and pleasure; a voluptuary.
Etymology [L. Sybarita, Gr. Sybarite.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sybarite”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details