different between profligacy vs profligate

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?p??fl???si/

Noun

profligacy (countable and uncountable, plural profligacies)

1. (countable) Careless wastefulness.
   • 1791, Thomas Paine, Rights Of Man

     No question has arisen within the records of history that pressed with the importance of the present. […] whether man shall inherit his rights, and universal civilisation take place? Whether the fruits of his labours shall be enjoyed by himself or consumed by the profligacy of governments?
2. (uncountable) Shameless and immoral behaviour.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

     He had, indeed, reduced several women to a state of utter profligacy, had broke the hearts of some, and had the honour of occasioning the violent death of one poor girl, who had either drowned herself, or, what was rather more probable, had been drowned by him.

Synonyms

• profligateness

Translations

English

Etymology

From Latin pr?fl?g?tus (“wretched, abandoned”), participle of pr?fl?g? (“strike down, cast down”), from pro (“forward”) + fligere (“to strike, dash”).

Pronunciation

• (adjective, noun, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p??fl???t/
• (adjective, noun, US) enPR: pr??fl?g?t, IPA^(key): /?p???fl???t/
• (adjective, noun)
• (verb, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p??fl??e?t/
• (verb, US) enPR: pr??fl?g?t, IPA^(key): /?p???fl??e?t/
• (verb)

Adjective

profligate (comparative more profligate, superlative most profligate)

1. Inclined to waste resources or behave extravagantly.

   Synonyms: extravagant, wasteful, prodigal; see also Thesaurus:prodigal

   • 2013, Ben Smith, "[1]", BBC Sport, 19 October 2013:

     Jay Rodriguez headed over and Dani Osvaldo might have done better with only David De Gea to beat and, as Southampton bordered on the profligate, United were far more ruthless.
2. Immoral; abandoned to vice.

   Synonyms: immoral, licentious

   • 1685, John Dryden, To The Pious Memory of the Accomplish'd Young Lady Mrs. Anne Killigrew

     Made prostitute and profligate the muse.
3. (obsolete) Overthrown, ruined.

Derived terms

• profligateness

Translations

Noun

profligate (plural profligates)

1. An abandoned person; one openly and shamelessly vicious; a dissolute person.
2. An overly wasteful or extravagant individual.

   Synonyms: wastrel; see also Thesaurus:spendthrift, Thesaurus:prodigal

Translations

Verb

profligate (third-person singular simple present profligates, present participle profligating, simple past and past participle profligated)

1. (obsolete) To drive away; to overcome.
   • 1840, Alexander Walker, Woman Physiologically Considered as to Mind, Morals, Marriage, Matrimonial Slavery, Infidelity and Divorce, page 157:

     Such a stipulation would remove one powerful temptation to profligate pennyless seducers, of whom there are too many prowling in the higher circles ;

Related terms

• profligacy
• profligately
• profligateness
• profligation

Further reading

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

Latin

Adjective

pr?fl?g?te

1. vocative masculine singular of pr?fl?g?tus