different between extravagance vs ostentation

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French extravagance, from Medieval Latin extra + vagor (“to wander”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?st?æv???ns/
• Hyphenation: ex?trav?a?gance

Noun

extravagance (countable and uncountable, plural extravagances)

1. Excessive or superfluous expenditure of money.
2. Prodigality, as of anger, love, expression, imagination, or demands.
   • A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.

Synonyms

Antonyms

• frugality
• economize
• moderation

Related terms

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

extravagance f (plural extravagances)

1. extravagance
   • 1837 Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche^{fr.Wikisource}, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter I:

     Sa curiosité et son extravagance arrivèrent à ce point qu’il vendit plusieurs arpents de bonnes terres à labourer pour acheter des livres de chevalerie à lire.

     His curiosity and his extravagance came to the point that he sold several arpents of good working land to buy books of chivalry to read.

Related terms

• extravagant
  • extravagamment

Further reading

• “extravagance” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

Originated 1425–75 from late Middle English ostentacioun, borrowed from Middle French ostentation, from Latin ostent?ti?, ostent?ti?nem, equivalent to ostent?tus (past participle of ostent?re, to display or exhibit), frequentative of ostendere (“to present, display”) + -i?n.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??st?n?te???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

ostentation (usually uncountable, plural ostentations)

1. Ambitious display; vain show; display intended to excite admiration or applause.
2. (obsolete) A show or spectacle.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4 Scene 1

     Let her awhile be secretly kept in,

     And publish it that she is dead indeed:

     Maintain a mourning ostentation;

Synonyms

• parade
• pageantry
• show
• showiness
• pomp
• pompousness
• vaunting
• boasting
• See also Thesaurus:arrogance

Related terms

• ostentatious
• ostensive
• ostensible

Translations

Further reading

• ostentation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ostentation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

References

• “ostentation”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, ?ISBN
• “ostentation” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "ostentation" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s.t??.ta.sj??/

Noun

ostentation f (plural ostentations)

1. ostentation