Voluptuary

Voluptuary (pronounced vuh-luhp-choo-er-ee)

(1) A person devoted to the pursuit and enjoyment of luxury and sensual pleasure; a pleasure-seeker, a sensualist.

(2) Of or relating to, or characterized by preoccupation with luxury and sensual pleasure.

(3) In informal use, the bedroom.

1595–1605: From the French voluptuaire or its etymon the Late Latin voluptuārius, from the Classical Latin voluptārius (pleasure-seeker; agreeable, delightful, pleasant; sensual), from voluptās (pleasure, delight, enjoyment, satisfaction), the construct being volupt(ās) (pleasure, delight) + -ārius (the adjectival suffix).  The suffix -aris was a form of -ālis with dissimilation of -l- to -r- after roots containing an l (the alternative forms were -ālis, -ēlis, -īlis & -ūlis); it was used to form adjectives, usually from noun, indicating a relationship or a "pertaining to".  The English suffic –ary (of or pertaining to) was a back-formation from unary and similar, from the Latin adjectival suffixes -aris and -arius; appended to many words, often nouns, to make an adjective form and use was not restricted to words of Latin origin.  The Latin voluptās was from volup (with pleasure; agreeably, pleasantly, satisfactorily) (perhaps related to velle (to wish)) and ultimately from a construct of the primitive Indo-European welh- (to choose; to want) or wel (to wish; to will) + the Latin -tās (the suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being).  Voluptuary & voluptuarian are nouns & adjectives, voluptuousness, voluptuosity & volupty are nouns, voluptuous is an adjective, voluptuate is the (always rare) verb and voluptuously is an adverb; the noun plural is voluptuaries.

Upon his arrival for trial at Nuremburg (1945-1946), Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945 and Reichsmarschall 1940-1945), grossly overweight and drug-addicted (albeit at a very low dose) was described by one doctor as “a decayed voluptuary”.  Slimmed down and detoxed by the time he appeared in the dock, he recovered much of his earlier élan but, guilty as sin, he was sentenced to be hanged.

The words voluptuary, epicurean, hedonist, sensualist & sybarite are synonymous although conventions do seem to govern their use.  Although there’s really neither the historical nor the supporting etymology to justify how the patterns of use have evolved, there does seem a tendency to associate epicureans with a fondness for fine food (based on one minor aspect of the tradition), hedonists seem to be treated as those who seek pleasure through experiences, sybarites are indulgent materialists and sensualists are devoted to the sins of flesh while the characteristic most now associated with the voluptuary may be decadence.  That thumbnail is wholly impressionistic and for each there will be a thousand contradictory examples and in literary use the choice may be dictated as much by the cadence of the text that any sense of differences in nuance.  All share many characteristics so there’s much overlap in meaning, all relating to the pursuit of pleasure and though there may be differences in emphasis, all are used to convey the idea of excess rather than moderation, immediate gratification, and a focus on physical senses as the source of happiness.

Judgement of Paris (circa 1634), oil on oak wood by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), National Gallery, London. 

The adjective voluptuous in the late fourteenth century originally meant “of or pertaining to desires or appetites” and was from the Old French voluptueux & volumptueuse and directly from the Latin voluptuosus (full of pleasure, delightful), again from voluptas and the specific idea of “one addicted to sensual pleasure” emerged in the mid-fifteenth century, the romantic poets in the early 1800s adopting the word to convey the feeling “suggestive of sensual pleasure”, something they applied especially to their aesthetic of feminine beauty.  It was only in the twentieth century that the word “voluptuous” came to be applied to the depictions of women in Renaissance art, their figures approximating what would now be described as “plump”.  Historians of art have devoted much attention to the motif and have concluded the artists were much influenced by the statutes from Antiquity and because they regarded the sculptors of old as having been closer to the perfection of Creation, regarded their carving as representing an ideal.  Of late, rather than a polite way to say “full figured”, “voluptuous” appears to have been re-purposed to mean simply “big boobs” so “Rubenesque” (a coining from the Romantic period) is probably a better choice, given its respectable origins.  Pragmatically, the “s” is almost always dropped because the clumsy sounding Rubensesque is too hard to pronounce.

In informal use, a voluptuary is “a bedroom”.  Lindsay Lohan’s voluptuary was in 2012 featured in Bravo TV’s “Million Dollar Decorator Makeover”  It’s believed it didn’t cost that much.