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As MN has noted, context and form mean everything; I will assay that you desire rather an antonym to the word decadent, which has the "debauched" meaning I'm betting you are after.
Decadence merely means (as closely I as I can come here) a state of decline; a quality of seediness.
Hope this helps.
Now, why didn't I think of that?Quote:
Originally Posted by JPaul
Mornin', JP. :)
Hope all's well?
Just so-Quote:
Originally Posted by JPaul
Your deftness is (as ever) admirable.
BTW-to be hidebound by logic can have the odd effect of widening the reactionist palette, I find.
Try it sometime when you feel a need to go forward rather than sideways. :P
I find myself in finer fettle than I deserve, according to some. :D
I am going to adjourn for a bit here, as I have before me the task of repairing a large box meant to reproduce sound at ear-splitting volumes.
I believe such undertakings are known as puttering, if memory serves.
It has been so long... :huh:
Dissolute is a fine old word meaning decadence and the opposite would be wholesome.
All Bran is wholesome
Therefore......
the opposite of decadence is unsweetened breakfast cereal with lots of roughage.
:blink:
Perhaps :shifty:
DISSOLUTE!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Biggles
Yes!
How many times I have reached for that very word, only to grasp futilely!
And another gold-strike with your breakfast description...
...mighten't we call that (preventive) maintenance?
BTW-the box is fixed!
Anyone in the market for a finely kept set of Cerwin-Vega DX-9s? :)
Last night in a dinner "they" suddenly turned to me as the mainb "englishy" speaky oerson aty the table and asked me
What is the opposite word of decadence.
my brain jammed - i asked for a 2minuite think period - the only thing i came up with was analysis of what acually decadence was in the hope that the analysis would spark the solution.
It did not
Many happy hours later we went home - without the answer
so - i posted the question here after not finding a suitable answer on the web.
Today at another dinner (yes its Xmas) i was sitting next to a english toefl teacher and a Cambridge literature graduate.
I asked them the same question....(cause i still want to know)
the discussion that evolved penetrated the origin of the entire discussion of language in itself and for some weird reason ended with Jane Austen...wtf?
i think... the conclusion was stoicism - yet they both remained frustrated that there was not an easy answer.
wholesome is definetly not a righteous antonym for decadence
growth, vigor are definetly weak opposites
i leave this discussion unsatisfied
I have used the word decadent on here a few times.
I use it to mean something a little more luxuriant than self indulgent; looking upward only J'Pol hinted at the same.
I think that is the way in which is it most commonly used.
Making stoicism the perfect antonym.
Nicely argued, but wrong, nonetheless.Quote:
Originally Posted by manker
It is the precision of Mssr. Roget's definition that defies an easy answer-
We should endeavor to persevere!
I did glance at JP's link earlier but I posted the above because my definition is conspicuous by it's absence from that particular link. I have no doubt it can be found elsewhere, however.Quote:
Originally Posted by j2k4
You are seeking to complicate the problem.
The question was seeking the antonym which best befits the word decadence. Given that my definition is the most widely used, it is therefore the most suited.
Unless you can think of a reason why popularity should succumb to the esoteric in this case.
.
nonindulgent?
sensible?