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  1. sumptuary love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Regulating or limiting personal expenditures.
  2. adj. Regulating commercial or real-estate activities: sumptuary laws discouraging construction of large houses on small plots of land.
  3. adj. Regulating personal behavior on moral or religious grounds: sumptuary laws forbidding gambling.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Relating to expense; regulating expense or expenditure.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Relating to expense; regulating expense or expenditure.
  2. adj. Relating to a law; sumptuary laws or regulations, are those intended to restrain or limit the expenditure of citizens in apparel, food, furniture, etc.; laws which regulate the prices of commodities and the wages of labor; laws which forbid or restrict the use of certain articles, as of luxurious apparel.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Relating to expense; regulating expense or expenditure.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. regulating or controlling expenditure or personal behavior

Etymologies

  1. Latin sumptuarius, from sumptus expense, cost, from sumere, sumptum, "to take", "use", "spend"; sub "under" + emere "to take", "buy": compare with French somptuaire (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin sūmptuārius, from sūmptus, expense, from past participle of sūmere, to take, buy; see em- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “In those days there was a law, known as a sumptuary law, which regulated by statute the clothes that each class of people were privileged to wear.”

    Men of Iron

  • “Perhaps it was from this cause that the idea of sumptuary laws originated; for though, in some cases, the pride of being distinguished might occasion the sovereign to enact, or the higher orders of society to solicit them, yet they were always considered as tending to prevent ruinous extravagance.”

    An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations. Designed To Shew How The Prosperity Of The British Empire May Be Prolonged

  • “He was fascinated by the "sumptuary" distinctions that separated the truly well off from the "shoestring aristocrats" and the shoestring aristocrats from those simply aspiring to their status.”

    The Wall Street Journal: The Audubon of Suburbia

  • “But even though it had been, golly, four or five years already since the dress laws - "sumptuary" laws they called them at school -- she just could not get used to them, after living in jeans all those years.”

    Linda Hirshman: Red State, Chapter Three: Garaged

  • “And what this all points to to me is a new kind of sumptuary law, or an attack on what some people consider conspicuous consumption.”

    CNN Transcript Jan 12, 2003

  • “For Ponte: Barton Beebe has a useful paper on sumptuary rules in TM.”

    Archive 2009-02-01

  • “Me for Ponte: I want to know more about sumptuary laws as economic protectionism.”

    Archive 2009-02-01

  • “The sumptuary laws of Rome defined exactly who could wear the Tyrian purple dye, and how much.”

    Drunk On Color

  • “Clearly, NY Times is not your typical local paper ... here are the Top 10 words: sui generis solipsistic louche laconic saturnine antediluvian epistemological shibboleths penury sumptuary”

    Archive 2009-06-01

  • “Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were found guilty of breaking sumptuary law (per the 18th amendment) and were sentenced to a year in jail.”

    The Pirate Bay vs Them – rematch

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. expense

equivalents (2)

Other words for ‘sumptuary’

  1. restrictive
  1. sumptuary regulations

same context (21)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. gun-control
  2. prohibitory
  3. voconian
  4. civil service
  1. anti-discrimination
  2. Sharia
  3. draconian
  4. antitrust
  1. campaign-finance
  2. epical
  3. child-labor
  4. hortatory
  1. yellow-ochre
  2. fundamental
  3. andindustrial
  4. equalize
  1. anti-fakery
  2. anti-liberal
  3. nonrepresentational
  4. consider
  1. penal

reverse dictionary (5)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. sumptuary law
  1. gondola
  1. sumptuary
  1. ary
  1. gynæconomos

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Comments

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  • theforbiddenone you only think that you are the law.......snd to the why not, just cuz Mar 5, 2010

  • reesetee God knows how much that would cost. Feb 5, 2009

  • plethora Let them eat cake. Feb 5, 2009

  • skipvia I think we need a new revolution. Feb 4, 2009

  • reesetee The line is somewhere around $35,001, apparently. *eyeroll* Feb 4, 2009

  • bilby See citiboobs. Feb 4, 2009

  • skipvia What could one possibly do to a commode that would make it worth $35,000? I find it profoundly disturbing that such a thing exists at all.

    Where do we draw the line? Feb 4, 2009

  • john “I’ve become increasingly concerned about the rising number of rich people who are being caught unawares by shifts in the sumptuary code. First, there were those auto executives who didn’t realize that it is no longer socially acceptable to use private jets for lobbying trips to Washington. Then there was John Thain, who was humiliated because it is no longer acceptable to spend $35,000 on a commode for a Merrill Lynch washroom.�?

    The New York Times, Ward Three Morality, by David Brooks, February 2, 2009 Feb 4, 2009

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‘sumptuary’ has been looked up 2115 times, loved by 5 people, added to 23 lists, commented on 8 times, and has a Scrabble score of 16.