inauguration

The inauguration of John F. Kennedy, 20 January 1961

15 January 2025

Our present-day English word inauguration comes from the Latin inauguratio. Augury was the practice of interpreting the behavior of birds as omens. Hence inauguratio connoted the beginning of an endeavor with favorable omens. The Latin noun appears in the writings of Tertullian (c. 155–c. 220 CE), but the word does not appear to have been widely used in classical Latin. It appears in Anglo-Latin c. 1360 in reference to the consecration of a bishop and in 1549 to refer to a university commencement.

The word does not, however, appear in English until the sixteenth century. John Hooper’s 1547 Detection of the Devils Sophistrie references the inauguration of Pope Leo V in July 903. Leo V’s papacy was short lived; he was deposed in February 904 and died shortly thereafter. But the passage is perhaps even more noteworthy for the story of one of Leo’s predecessors, Stephen VI. Stephen had put the rotting corpse of Pope Formosus on trial in 897. The corpse was found guilty, but the political outcry over the trial resulted in Stephen being deposed and strangled:

Stephene the sixt was byshope of Rome and for a priuate hattred he had unto his predecessour and benefactor fformosus abrogatid all the lawes and statutes that he made in the time of his being byshope, pluckyd the ded body out of his sepulchre, cut of too fingers of his right hand and cast them into the fflud Tyber. After the death of Stephene succedid Romanus primus, and after him too orher. Theodorus secundus, & Ioannes decimus. These thre disanullid all the decrees of Stephyne, and restoryd the actes and statutes of fformosus Sthephanes Ennymie. Alitle after was leo the ffyghe made byshope, and within xl. dayes of his inauguracion, is uery ffrend Christopher cast hym in to pryson.

Another early English use was by Scottish theologian John Knox in 1558 in reference to the installation of priests:

Nothing did God reueale particularely to Aaron, but altogither was he commaunded to depend from the mouth of Moses: Yea nothing was he permitted to do to hym self or to his children either in his or theyr inauguration and sanctification to the preesthode, but all was committed to the care of Moses.

By 1569 it was being used in a secular context, that of the coronation of James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) two years prior:

The namis of the Estatis of this realme convenit at Edinburgh in the month of December MDLXVII. quhair our Soverane Lordis coronatioun and inauguratioun in his kingdom was ratyfeit and found gude.

Inauguration makes its appearance in an American political context in the Federalist 52, in reference to the start of a new governmental structure under the recently drafted constitution. As printed in the Independent Journal of 9 February 1788:

It is true that all these difficulties will by degrees be very much diminished. The most laborious task will be the proper inauguration of the government, and the primeval formation of the federal code.

The use of inauguration to refer specifically to the installation of a president of the United States dates to the very first instance, that of George Washington on 30 April 1789. Inauguration appears in print in this context in the Journal of the House of Representatives the following day:

The Speaker laid before the House a copy of the Speech of the President of the United States, to both Houses of Congress, delivered yesterday in the senate-chamber, immediately after his inauguration.

And a letter from Alexander Hamilton to Washington, dated 5 May 1789, outlines his thoughts on how the newly installed president might avoid implications of favoritism:

The President to accept no invitations: and to give formal entertainments only twice or four times a year on the anniversaries of important events in the revolution. If twice, the day of the declaration of Independence, and that of the inauguration of the President, which completed the organization of the Constitution, to be preferred; if four times, the day of the treaty of alliance with france & that of the definitive treaty with Britain to be added.

Following Washington’s first term, presidential terms were inaugurated on 4 March until 1933, when the twentieth amendment to the U.S. Constitution changed the date and time to noon, 20 January. The change was instituted to shorten the lame-duck period after the transition from the Hoover to the Franklin Roosevelt administration in the depths of the Great Depression when urgent action was needed and not forthcoming from the outgoing administration.

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Sources:

Campbell, Hugh, ed. “Part of the Early of Murray’s Instructions to Robert Commendatur of Dunfermling, His Ambassador Sent to the English Queen, 15th October, 1569.” In The Love Letters of Mary Queen of Scots to James Earl of Bothwell. London: Longman, et al., 1824, Appendix 59. HathiTrust Digital Archive.

Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013, s.v. inaugurare. Brepols: Database of Latin Dictionaries.

Hamilton, Alexander. Letter to George Washington, 5 May 1789. US National Archives.

Hooper, John. Detection of the Devils Sophistrie. Zurich: Augustyne Fries, 1547. Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Journal of the House of Representatives, vol. 1: First Congress, First Session (1 May 1789).  Martin P. Claussen, ed. Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1977, 29. HathiTrust Digital Archive.

Knox, John. The Appellation of Iohn Knoxe from the Cruell and Most Iniust Sentence Pronounced against Him by the False Bishoppes and Clergie of Scotland. Geneva: 1558, 18. ProQuest: Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Latham, Ronald E., David R. Howlett, and Richard K. Ashdowne, eds. Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources. Oxford: British Academy, 2013, s.v. inauguratio, n. Brepols: Database of Latin Dictionaries.

Lewis, Charlton T. and Charles Short, eds. A Latin Dictionary (1879). Oxford: Oxford UP, 1933, s.v. inauguratio, n. Brepols: Database of Latin Dictionaries.

Madison, James and Alexander Hamilton. “Federalist 52.” Independent Journal (New York), 9 February 1788, 2. NewsBank: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. inauguration, n.

Photo credit: US government photo, 1961. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.

B movie

Movie poster for the 1936 B movie “Two-Fisted Gentleman”

13 January 2025

A B movie is a low-budget, low-quality film. The division of films into two quality-based groupings dates to the earliest days of the film industry and has precursors in the practices of vaudeville theater. But the B movie as we know it today arises out of the distribution methods used by the Hollywood studios in the 1920s and 30s.

The earliest example of a division of movies into A and B categories that I’m aware of was found by Bill Mullins in a classified ad for Edison Films that appeared in the New York Clipper on 16 July 1904. The distinction appears to be based on quality, but exactly how that determination was made is uncertain. The films referenced in the ad are very short, only a few minutes long, of everyday scenes or short vignettes:

EDISON FILMS
Patented and Copyrighted.

Film Supplement No. 215 Contains Descriptions of 65 Attractive Subjects
Class A, 15 Cents Per Ft.        Class B, 12 Cents Per Ft.

The A and B division may have developed out of or been influenced by the vaudeville practice of A and B circuits, differentiated by the quality of the acts. We have this description of the formation of once such divided vaudeville circuit from 12 April 1913, again from the New York Clipper:

The circuit is to be divided into two parts. Class A theatres will include cities of over 50,000 population, which will have one show a week and will be a one week stand. Class B houses will include all cities under 50,000 population, and will be split weeks, having two companies a week. The shows will follow each other in a circle.

Some vaudeville theaters would run films as well as stage acts. Here is an example from Moving Picture World of 20 September 1919 that reflects something closer to what we today understand a B movie to be:

The Lyric will run two acts of vaudeville and what she calls “Class B” pictures. We won’t risk a deluge of letters from press agents by mentioning the stars she cites in this class, but Class A includes those players who are most popular, and the second class those not so popular, but still by no means as inferior as the classification suggests.

The division of A and B movies as we know it today was formalized by the distribution system used by the studios in the 1920s. At the time, before the government broke up their vertical monopolies, the major studios (MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and RKO) and the major-minor studios (United Artists, Columbia, and Universal) owned the theaters in which their films were shown in first run. Independent theaters would show films produced by the minor, “Poverty Row,” studios and second-run films from the majors and major-minors.

Films were broken into two classes, A and B. Class A movies were produced by the major and major-minor studios and rented to the theaters on a percentage basis, with the studios taking a cut of the box office. B movies were produced by all the studios and rented to theaters for a flat fee. B movies typically had lower budgets, were shorter in length, and lacked major stars—although B movies from the major and major-minor studios sometimes featured their contract stars. B movies were cheaper to produce, although the absolute cost was relative: a B movie produced by one of the major studios would typically cost more than the most expensive film produced by a minor studio. As a result, B movies gained a reputation for being lower quality. Theaters would often pair an A and a B movie in a double feature, making the classification analogous to the A and B sides of a single music record. 

This formal classification of films into A and B features was first used by the film distribution company V-L-S-E, Inc. in 1915. The company was a joint venture by the “big four” studios of the day, Vitagraph, Lubin, Selig, and Essanay. We see this in the announcement of V-L-S-E’s classification system in the 19 June 1915 edition of Moving Picture World:

Briefly, "The Big Four" are classifying their productions; they say that while each feature on their program represents the utmost allowed by the subject in dramatic values, artistic photography and construction, some plays do not register in their estimation, as high as others and such subjects, while they must be plays of superior merit to get a place on the V-L-S-E program, are rated as Class B.

Class B subjects will have a lower rental valuation. A maximum charge is placed upon them and no representative of the V-L-S-E will be permitted to accept a higher rental, no matter how strong the competition for service may be in Iiis territory.

This method of doing business is unusual in the film industry, and its inauguration by the four standard companies, establishes it as a permanent part of the business.

This classification system was carried over into studio system that developed in the 1920s. Here is an example that uses the term to refer to the independent theaters that showed B movies. From the Des Moines Register of 2 September 1930:

OTTUMWA—Announcement of the sale of operating rights of the Square and Empire Theaters of this city to the Public corporation of Iowa, subsidiary of the National Paramount Publix, has been made by Stephen Braun, former owner and manager. The contract involves a twenty-year lease and Emerson, who has recently been manager of class B movie houses operated by Publix in Des Moines, will be resident manager of the local theaters. Both houses will be redecorated and a talkie machine will be installed in the Empire, which up to the present time has been without this equipment, thus bringing the total of talkie houses in Ottumwa to five.

And there is this use the phrase to refer to a film itself that I have found is from the New York Post of 25 August 1936 and pertains to Columbia’s (a major-minor studio) film Two-Fisted Gentleman:

In the lineup, besides the principals, are George McKay, Thurston Hall, Gene Morgan, Paul Guilfoyle and Harry Tyler. It’s what the Columbia executives call a Class B movie.

But B movie has persisted as a designator of a cheap, low-quality movie long after the old studio system and the distribution methods were relegated to the dustbin of history.

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Sources:

“How Dolly Spurr Announces the Coming Seasons Plans.” Moving Picture World, 20 September 1919, 1851/1. Archive.org.

“Edison Films” (classified ad). New York Clipper, 2 July 1904, 439/1. Archive.org.

Mullins, Bill. “B movie (1930),” ADS-L, 14 December 2024.

“New Theatrical Circuit Formed.” New York Clipper, 12 April 1913, 8/2. Archive.org.

“Publix Corporation Will Operate Two Ottumwa Theaters.” Des Moines Register (Iowa), 2 September 1930, 11/2. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Rogers, Maureen. “Remaking the B Film in 1940s Hollywood: Producers Releasing Corporation and the Poverty Row Programmer.” Film History, 29.2, Summer 2017, 138–64 at 141. JSTOR.

“Screen Views and News: ‘Two-Fisted Gentleman’ Just Another Fight Film.” New York Post, 25 August 1936, 11/2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Taves, Brian. “The B Film: Hollywood’s Other Half.” In Grand Design: Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise: 1930–1939, Tino Balio, ed. History of the American Cinema 5. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1993, 313–50 at 314.

“V-L-S-E Classifies Subjects.” Moving Picture World, 19 June 1915, 1951/1. Archive.org.

Zimmer, Ben. “‘B movie’ and related terms.” ADS-L, 19 May 2024.

Image credit: Columbia Pictures, 1936. Wikipedia. Fair use of a copyrighted image to illustrate the topic under discussion.

ruthenium

Coat of arms of Ruthenia used at the Council of Constance, 1414–18

10 January 2025

Ruthenium is a chemical element with atomic number 44 and the symbol Ru. The metal is a member of the platinum group and usually found in platinum ores. Like other members of that group it is generally unreactive. Ruthenium is used in alloys, especially in electronic equipment, to increase hardness and corrosion resistance. A radioactive isotope of the metal is used in radiotherapy of eye tumors. Ruthenium tetroxide is used to express latent fingerprints.

Ruthenium was discovered on three different occasions, but the first two were not confirmed. In 1808 Jędrzej Śniadecki found the element in South American platinum ores, which he dubbed vestium after the recently discovered asteroid Vesta, but his work could not be verified. In 1828, Gottfried Osann found the element in platinum ore that had been mined in the Ural Mountains. Osann named the element ruthenium:

Das Gerücht von Aussindung eines neuen Metalls veranlafste Vorschläge zur Benennung desselben, unter welchen der, es Ruthenium zu nennen, gewiss der pas sendste ist.

The rumor of the discovery of a new metal gave rise to suggestions for its name, of which calling it ruthenium is certainly the most appropriate.

The element’s name comes from Ruthenia, originally a medieval Latin name for what is now southeastern Poland and Ukraine that is often used synonymously with Russia. The place name appears in English by the late fourteenth century in John Trevisa’s translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus in his De proprietatibus rerum (On the Properties of Things). Trevisa wrote:

Rvcia hatte Rutenia and is a prouynce of Messia [in þe march of þe lasse Asia].

(Russia is called Ruthenia and is a province of Messia [in the marches of lesser Asia].)

But again the discovery was called into question and Osann withdrew his claim of discovery. Karl Ernest Claus, an ethnic-German Russian, definitively found the element in 1844 and retained Osann’s name for it in honor of his homeland.

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Sources:

Anglicus, Bartholomaeus. On the Properties of Things, vol. 2 of 3. John Trevisa, trans. M.C. Seymour, ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975, 15.130, 2:802.

Miśkowiec, Pawel. “Name Game: The Naming History of the Chemical Elements: Part 2—Turbulent Nineteenth Century.” Foundations of Chemistry, 8 December 2022. DOI: 10.1007/s10698-022-09451-w.

Osann, G. “Forsetzung der Untersuchung des Platins vom Ural.” Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 13, 1838, 283–97 at 281. HathiTrust Digital Archive.

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2011, s.v. ruthenium, n.; Ruthenian, n. & adj.

Image credit: Conrad Grünenberg, 1480. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.

soap opera / horse opera / space opera

Time, 12 January 1976

8 January 2025

A soap opera is a melodramatic, serial drama. The term is also used figuratively to denote real-life events of the type that would be dramatized in the genre. Soap operas got their start in radio before moving on to television and were typically broadcast in the daytime with a target audience of housewives, although their popularity often extended beyond that demographic. The name comes from the fact that early soap operas were often sponsored by soap companies.

The first soap opera is generally considered to be Ma Perkins, which was first broadcast on WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio (Cincinnati being the home of soap manufacturer Proctor & Gamble) on 14 August 1933. The NBC radio network picked up the program in December of that year. Ma Perkins ran until 1960, and for most of those years it was sponsored by Oxydol detergent, one of Proctor & Gamble’s products.

The earliest use of the term that I have been able to find is in the Buffalo Times (New York) of 27 February 1938:

Chicago is the home of the “soap opera,” an odd name which has been tacked on to those morning and afternoon serial dramas by radio actors. Soap manufacturers were the first to use these daytime serials extensively and, actors being actors, the name stuck.

A number of the early appearances of the term were by Paul Kennedy, the radio reporter for the Cincinnati Post. On 2 March 1938 Kennedy wrote,

McKay Morris who did so slick a stint in “Tovarich” here signed as a regular member of the soap opera "Ma Perkins."

And on 9 March 1938, Memphis Tennessee’s Commercial Appeal had this:

In explaining his entrance into radio via the daytime serial route rather than guest appearances on the bigger shows, Morris expresses belief that the “soap operas” are a greater test of adaptability to radio. “And being so typically ‘radio’ as contrasted to adaptations to radio from some other medium,” he says, “they can teach me more thoroughly about radio acting.”

On 20 May 1938, Kennedy would explain the origin of the term:

Some pretty drastic things are happening to the “soap operas” beginning with today’s schedule.

The “soap opera,” in the event the term puzzles, is the 15-minute dramatic serial which has become phenomenally successful in the past two years. Beginning today the flour millers, which have offered so many of these pieces, have consolidated their programs and now have a solid hour lined up from 1 to 2 p. m. Mondays through Fridays.

[…]

But that’s not all. The Cincinnati soapworks which pioneered the soap opera as a selling medium has capped this effort and has a full our in the morning on one NBC network and full hour in the afternoon on another. The morning lineup, running from 9:45 to 10:45 includes: Ma Perkins, Story of Mary Marlin, Vic and Sade and Pepper Young’s Family. Almost the same lineup will be repeated in the afternoon from 2 to 3 on another network.

This cluster of citations from various cities in the spring of 1938 shows that use of the term was fairly widespread by this point, probably primarily orally by actors and industry insiders.

The figurative use of soap opera dates to at least 1944, when Raymond Chandler used it in his novel The Lady in the Lake:

“Nothing over there,” he said. “She packed up and went down the same night. I didn’t see her again. I don’t want to see her again. I haven’t heard a word from Muriel in the whole month, not a single word. I don’t have any idea at all where she’s at. With some other guy, maybe. I hope he treats her better than I did.”

He stood up and took the keys out of his pocket and shook them. “So if you want to go across and look at Kingsley’s cabin, there isn’t a thing to stop you. And thanks for listening to the soap opera. And thanks for the liquor. Here.” He picked the bottle up and handed me what was left of the pint.

Soap opera is modeled on an older, film-industry term, horse opera, referring to a western movie. Horse opera appears to have gotten its start on the sets of Triangle Film Studio, which produced, among many other silent films, the western films of producer Thomas Ince and actor-director William S. Hart. The term made its way onto the pages of the Seattle Times as an adjective on 3 September 1916:

Enid Markey, the Triangle-Ince actress, is having an unusual experience this week. She is the only girl among more than a hundred men who are camping out in Topango Canyon, several miles from Inceville, where William S. Hart is engaged in filming scenes for the Triangle drama by J. G. Hawks, in which she is starring. Miss Markey is appearing “opposite” Hart in the play and is so profoundly revered by the Inceville “horse-opera troupe” that she had no compunctions about living in Topango indefinitely.

And the noun appears in Variety on 28 December 1917:

Cliff Smith is known around the Triangle plant as the “director of horse opera.” He is the chap who tells Roy Stewart, the western drama, [sic] star, how it should be done before the camera.

A later coinage in a different genre modeled on horse opera and soap opera is space opera, which was apparently coined by science fiction writer Bob Wilson in the pages of his fanzine Le Zombie in January 1941:

SUGGESTION DEPT: In these hectic days of phrase-coining, we offer one. Westerns are called “horse operas”, the morning housewife hear-jerkers are called “soap operas”. For the hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn space-ship yarn, or world-saving for that matter, we offer "space opera[.]”

There are a couple of older uses of the phrase soap opera which do not appear to be related to the term as we know it today. Stephen Goranson found an earlier use of soap drama, referring to a theatrical production, in the Oregonian newspaper of 12 April 1903, but this appears to be a one-off use:

This week just passing has been the dullest of the season in New York. (On Monday night there was not a solitary opening of importance. “Spotless Town,” called here the “the soap drama,” on account of its being based upon advertisements of Sapolio, came into the Fourteenth-Street Theater for a single week, but the piece is not of a caliber to attract the regular patronage, although it has made money on the road.

Sapolio is a soap brand founded in the nineteenth century. At the turn of the twentieth century, famed advertising executive Artemas Ward launched a major ad campaign for the product. No longer used in North America, the Sapolio brand is now owned by Proctor & Gamble and used to sell products in South America.

And Bill Mullins found a use of soap opera in the 8 April 1918 issue of Billboard. It appears in a column consisting of short quips about pitchmen, or itinerant salesmen, many involving a salesman named Doc W. H. Hazlett. It reads as if it is a theatrical genre, but given the context it more likely refers to a salesman who had used excessive flattery, or soft soap:

Doc L. A. Leonard advancing to an open house manager in a small town: “When did have the last show?”  Manager: “A Soap Opera was here last week.” Let’s hear from you, Frank Hazlett.

But if other early examples turn up, the radio term may have an older lineage.

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Sources:

Baker, Gasoline Bill. “Pipes for Pitchmen,” The Billboard, 8 April 1918, 33/2. Archive.org.

Chandler, Raymond. The Lady in the Lake (1944). London: Heinemann/Octopus, 1977, 287 (final paragraphs of chapter 5). Archive.org.

Cook, Alton. “Bushman Still Star in Radio.” Buffalo Times (New York), 27 February 1938, 8-D/2. Newspapers.com.

“Enid Markey Camping Out.” Seattle Sunday Times (Washington), 3 September 1916, Section 3, 3/2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Goranson, Stephen. “‘Soap Opera’ 1871; ‘the soap drama’ 1903.’” ADS-L, 10 December 2024.

Gray, Robert. “‘Tovarich’ Road Show Star Joins Cast of Radio Drama.” Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), 9 March 1938, 22/3. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, 2022, s.v. space opera, n.

Kennedy, Paul. “From Off the Cuff.” Cincinnati Post (Ohio), 2 March 1938, 20/1. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

———, “‘Soap Operas’ Concentrated into Hourly Slots on Schedule.” Cincinnati Post (Ohio), 30 May 1938, 6/6. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. soap opera, n., horse opera, n.; third edition, December 2008, space opera, n.

Price, Guy. “Coast Picture News.” Variety, 28 December 1917, 251. ProQuest Magazines.

Tucker, Arthur Wilson “Bob.” “Depts of the Interior.” Le Zombie, 36, January 1941, 9. e-Zombie & Le Zombie.

“Weber and Fields Begin Their Annual Tour” (6 April 1903). Sunday Oregonian (Portland), 12 April 1903, 27/2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Photo credit: Julian Wasser, 1976. Copyright WarnerMedia, 1976. Fair use of a low-resolution copy of a copyrighted photo used to illustrate the topic under discussion.

luxury

“Beware of Luxury” / “In Weelde Sie Toe” (In Luxury, Be Careful) or “The Upside Down World,” Jan Steen c. 1663, oil on canvas

6 January 2025

Today, we associate luxury with wealth, opulence, and indulgence, but the word originally meant lust, sexual intercourse, or just more generally sensual pleasure. The word was imported into English by the Normans, coming from the Old French luxure (lust, lechery), which in turn is from the Latin luxuria, which meant riotous living or extravagance, in classical Latin. But in medieval Latin the word had also come to mean lust or sexual license. This sexual sense is reflected in both the early English use of the word as well as in the Anglo-Norman noun and in the verb luxurier (to fornicate) and the adjective luxurius (lustful, lecherous).

Luxury is first recorded in English in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, a confessional text copied by a Kentish monk in 1340. It’s a translation of the French Somme le Roi, a very popular book in its day:

Þet uerste heaued of þe beste of helle: ys prede. Þet oþer is enuie. þe þridde wreþe. þe uerþe sleauþe þet me clepeþ ine clergie: accidye. þe vifte icinge. in clergie auarice. oþer couaytise. þe zixte glotounye. þe zeuende lecherie oþer luxurie.

(The first head of the beast of hell is pride. The next is envy. The third wrath. The fourth sloth, that we in the clergy call accidie. The fifth greed, in the clergy avarice or covetousness. The sixth is gluttony. The seventh lechery or luxury.)

The sense of luxury meaning wealth, splendor, opulence doesn’t appear until the early seventeenth century. Phineas Fletcher uses the word in both the lust and opulence senses in two different poems, both published in 1633. The sexual sense appears in his poem The Purple Island, canto 3, stanza 25:

Where Venus and her wanton have their being:
For nothing is produc't of two in all agreeing.

But though some few in these hid parts would see
Their Makers glory, and their justest shame;
Yet for the most would turn to luxurie.

And the modern sense of opulence appears in the poem Elisa, canto 25:

I never knew or want or luxurie,
Much lesse their followers; or cares tormenting,
Or ranging lust, or base-bred flatterie.

Since this modern English sense is closer to the original Latin meaning, it is probably the result of people reinterpreting the word to reflect the old meaning. Most literate people of the time also knew Latin and would have been familiar with how classical writers used the word. It is this sense that survives today, and luxury has lost whatever sexual connotations it once had.

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Sources:

Anglo-Norman Dictionary, 2012, s.v. luxure, n.

Dan Michel’s Ayenbite of Inwyt, vol. 1. Pamela Gradon, ed. Richard Morris, transcription (1866). London: Oxford UP, 1965, Early English Text Society O.S. 23. 16. HathiTrust Digital Archive.

Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources. Ronald E. Latham, David R. Howlett, and Richard K. Ashdown, eds. Oxford: British Academy, 2013. Brepolis: Database of Latin Dictionaries.

Fletcher, Phineas. The Purple Island, or, The Isle of Man, Together with Piscatorie Eclogs and Other Poeticall Miscellanies.. Cambridge: Printers to the University of Cambridge, 1633, 34–35 and 111. ProQuest: Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Lewis, Charlon T. and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary (1879). Oxford: Oxford UP, 1933, s.v. luxuria. Brepolis: Database of Latin Dictionaries.

Middle English Dictionary, 2024, s.v. luxuri(e, n.

Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. luxury, n.

Image credit: Jan Steen, c. 1663. Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna). Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image as a mechanical reproduction of a public domain work.