Picture a long table full of good things. Some people take a little and stop; some people take everything in sight. This topic has five words for holding back and five for giving in to pleasure, and they come up often in history and fiction, where writers love to set a careful hero beside a greedy king.
Key idea
Holding back: temperate (moderate), abstain (choose not to), abstemious (eating and drinking little), ascetic (giving up comforts on purpose), restraint (self-control). Giving in: hedonist (a person who lives for pleasure), sybarite (a lover of luxury), epicurean (devoted to fine food), decadent (soft with too much luxury), voracious (hungry for more).
Two of these words come from names. A sybarite is named for Sybaris, an ancient city famous for luxury, and epicurean comes from Epicurus, a Greek thinker whose name later came to stand for a love of fine food.
The ten words
Common mistake
ascetic (self-denying) is not aesthetic (about beauty). epicurean today means fond of fine food, though the ancient philosopher it is named for taught simple pleasures.
| holding back | giving in |
|---|---|
| temperate: moderate, never extreme | hedonist: lives for pleasure |
| abstain: choose not to | sybarite: loves luxury and comfort |
| abstemious: eats and drinks little | epicurean: devoted to fine food |
| ascetic: gives up comforts on purpose | decadent: spoiled by luxury, slipping downhill |
| restraint: self-control | voracious: hungry for more and more |
Common mistake
ascetic (uh-SET-ik), giving up comforts, is not aesthetic (es-THET-ik), having to do with beauty. An ascetic room is bare; an aesthetic room is beautiful.