Sybarite

sb. and a. Also 7 Siberite, -arite, -aryte. [ad. L. Sybarīta, ad. Gr. Συβαρίτης, f. Σύβαρις Sybaris (see below). Cf. F. Sybarite.]

  A.  sb. 1. A native or citizen of Sybaris, an ancient Greek city of southern Italy, noted for its effeminacy and luxury.

1598.  Bp. Hall, Sat., V. ii. 58. All dumb and silent, like the dead of night, Or dwelling of some sleepy Sybarite.

1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. 1905, III. 189, margin. The Sybarites neuer would make any banquet vnder a twelue-moneths warning.

1601.  R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 64. The pleasure of Tarent and the soile of the Siberites were inchantments sufficient to make men effeminate.

1660.  Stanley, Hist. Philos., IX. Pythagoras, xi. (1687), 499/2. The Crotonians joyning with the Sybarites and the Metapontines, determined to expel the rest of the Grecians out of Italy.

1787.  Beckford, Lett. Italy, xxix. (1805), I. 291. I have some noisy tradesmen near me, that the Sybarites would not have permitted in their city.

1834.  K. H. Digby, Mores Cath., V. vi. 182. The Sybarites of old would not allow a cock to be in their city, lest it should disturb their matutinal slumbers.

  2.  A person devoted to luxury or pleasure; an effeminate voluptuary or sensualist.

  Now spelt more freq. with small initial.

1623.  Drumm. of Hawth., Flowres of Sion, Hymne True Happinesse, 44. Fraile Beautie to abuse, And (wanton Sybarites) On past or present touch of sense to muse.

1628.  Le Grys, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, 41. Not to haue their stables full, (as in an Army of Sibarytes) of capreoling Horses.

1809.  Mrs. Jane West, The Mother (1810), 35. Some feeble Sybarite, Pain’d by a crumpled rose-leaf.

1820.  Byron, Mar. Fal., III. ii. 160. The Lords of Lacedæmon were true soldiers, But ours are Sybarites.

1863.  Miss Braddon, J. Marchmont, III. i. 7. It was a handsome room, certainly—the very room for an artist and a sybarite.

1880.  Disraeli, Endym., xxxvii. The dinner was refined, for Mr. Bertie Tremaine combined the Sybarite with the Utilitarian sage.

  transf.  1852.  H. Rogers, Ecl. Faith (1853), 30. ‘This,’ said I, ‘is the plea of intellectual Sybarites.’

  B.  adj. = SYBARITIC.

1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. 1905, III. 189. Hydra herring will haue euery thing Sybarite dainty, where he lays knife aboord.

1608.  Topsell, Serpents, 227. So great is the poyson of the Sibarite Scorpion, that the dung thereof being trode vppon breedeth vlcers.

1660.  Stanley, Hist. Philos., IX. Pythagoras, xvii. (1687), 504/1. These Sybarite-Ambassadors.

1831.  Youatt, Horse, iv. 43. The Sybarite horses began to dance.

1838.  Prescott, Ferd. & Is. (1846), I. xi. 454. This Sybarite indulgence … does not seem to have impaired the martial spirit of the nobles.

1897.  Gunter, Ballyho Bey, xv. 178. Her slave-girl, Irene Vannos, even as she fans her sybarite mistress, falls fainting on the deck.

  So Sybarism, sybaritism; Sybarist, a sybarite; Sybarital a., sybaritic; † Sybaritan [L. Sybarītānus] a. and sb. = SYBARITE; Sybaritish a. (also 7 error. Sabar-), sybaritic; Sybaritism, sybaritic habits or practices, effeminate voluptuousness.

1889.  Beatrice Whitby, Awakening Mary Fenwick, II. vii. 169. I am ashamed of your selfish *sybarism!

1652.  N. Culverwel, Lt. Nature, I. xvii. (1661), 153. The soft *Sybarist … complain’d in the morning of his weariness.

1839.  J. E. Reade, Deluge, etc., 149.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 310. Whereupon the *Sibaritan horsses came running & dancing among their aduersaries.

1608.  D. T[uvill], Ess. Pol. & Mor., 118. That speech of the Sibaritans, concerning the Lacedæmonians austerer kind of living.

1631.  R. H., Arraignm. Whole Creature, v. 32. That abound in all Asian luxuries, and more than *Sabaritish delights.

a. 1656.  Hales, Gold. Rem., I. (1673), 67. All this is but out of a Sybaritish ridiculous daintiness.

1821.  Examiner, 253/1. Sybaritish enjoyment.

1883.  W. E. Norris, No New Thing, II. xiii. 4. We sit … hugging ourselves in a sybaritish contentment.

1840.  G. Darley, Wks. Beaum. & Fl., Introd. (Rtldg.), p. xxiii. It is quite a mistake to imagine *Sybaritism did not commence in England till the reign of Charles the Second, when it was rather at its climax.

1870.  Echo, 9 Nov. Modern Republics like ancient Carthage swim in gold and sybaritism.