different between expensive vs expensiveness

English

Alternative forms

• expencive (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin exp?ns?vus, from expend?; synchronically analyzable as expense +? -ive. In the sense of "high-priced" has largely displaced dear.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?sp?ns?v/, /?k?sp?ns?v/

Adjective

expensive (comparative more expensive, superlative most expensive)

1. (obsolete) Given to expending a lot of money; profligate, lavish.
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, I.4:

     [H]e had been very expensive when abroad; and contracted a large debt […].

   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.25:

     [T]hus naturally generous and expensive, he squandered away his money, and made a most splendid appearance upon the receipt of his quarterly appointment […] .

2. Having a high price or cost.
3. (computing) Taking a lot of system time or resources.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:expensive

Antonyms

• cheap
• inexpensive
• low-priced

Derived terms

• expensive drunk
• expensively
• expensiveness

Related terms

• expend
• expense

Translations

English

Etymology

expensive +? -ness

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?sp?ns?vn?s/, [?k-], [-?sp?ns?v?n?s], [-?v?n?s]

Noun

expensiveness (usually uncountable, plural expensivenesses)

1. The state of being expensive; the entailing of great expense.
   • 1743, John Wesley, An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, London: G. Whitfield, 1796, A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, Part II, III.1, p. 212, [1]

     Surely you cannot be ignorant, that the sinfulness of fine apparel lies chiefly in the expensiveness. In that it is robbing God and the Poor; it is defrauding the fatherless and the widow; it is wasting the food of the hungry, and with-holding his raiment from the naked, to consume it on our own lusts.

   • 1922, Emily Post, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, Chapter 14: Formal Dinners, [2]

     Enchanting dining-rooms and tables have been achieved with an outlay amounting to comparatively nothing. ¶ There is a dining-room in a certain small New York house that is quite as inviting as it is lacking in expensiveness.

Translations