profligate
pronunciation
How to pronounce profligate in British English:
UK [ˈprɒflɪgət]
How to pronounce profligate in American English:
US [ˈprɑflɪgət]
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- Noun:
- a dissolute man in fashionable society
- a recklessly extravagant consumer
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- Adjective:
- recklessly wasteful
- unrestrained by convention or morality
Word Origin
- profligate
- profligate: [16] Something that is profligate has etymologically been ‘beaten down’ to a state of ruination or degradation. The word was adapted from Latin prōflīgātus ‘destroyed, dissolute’, an adjective based on the past participle of prōflīgāre ‘beat down, destroy’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix prō- ‘forward’ (used here in the sense ‘down’) and flīgere ‘hit’ (source also of English afflict, conflict [15], and inflict [16]).=> afflict, conflict, inflict
- profligate (adj.)
- 1520s, "overthrown, routed" (now obsolete in this sense), from Latin profligatus "destroyed, ruined, corrupt, abandoned, dissolute," past participle of profligare "to cast down, defeat, ruin," from pro- "down, forth" (see pro-) + fligere "to strike" (see afflict). Main modern meaning "recklessly extravagant" is 1779, via notion of "ruined by vice" (1640s, implied in a use of profligation). Related: Profligately. As a noun from 1709.
Example
- 1. And qaddafi 's profligate weapons purchases have left libya with mountains of unsecured armaments .
- 2. It is not : the frugal depend on the profligate .
- 3. Profligate spending habits are unlikely to return soon .
- 4. This country is already too profligate , they cry .
- 5. Where labour presided over a profligate boom and bust , the risk now is of economic stagnation .