decadent

decadent
decadently /dek"euh deuhnt lee, di kayd"nt-/, adv.
/dek"euh deuhnt, di kayd"nt/, adj.
1. characterized by decadence, esp. culturally or morally: a decadent life of excessive money and no sense of responsibility.
2. (often cap.) of or like the decadents.
n.
3. a person who is decadent.
4. (often cap.) one of a group of French and English writers of the latter part of the 19th century whose works were characterized by aestheticism, great refinement or subtlety of style, and a marked tendency toward the artificial and abnormal in content.
[1830-40; back formation from DECADENCE; see -ENT]
Syn. 1. corrupt, immoral, degenerate, debased, debauched, self-indulgent.

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▪ literary movement
French  Décadent  

      any of several poets or other writers of the end of the 19th century, including the French Symbolist poets in particular and their contemporaries in England, the later generation of the Aesthetic movement. Both groups aspired to set literature and art free from the materialistic preoccupations of industrialized society, and, in both, the freedom of some members' morals helped to enlarge the connotation of the term, which is almost equivalent to fin de siècle.

      In France it was Paul Verlaine (Verlaine, Paul) who gladly accepted the descriptive epithet décadent, which had been used in a collection of parodies, Les Déliquescences d'Adoré Floupette (1885; “The Corruption of Adoré Floupette”), by Gabriel Vicaire and Henri Beauclair. From 1886 to 1889 appeared a review, Le Décadent, founded by Anatole Baju, with Verlaine among its contributors. The Decadents claimed Charles Baudelaire (Baudelaire, Charles) (d. 1867) as their inspiration and counted Arthur Rimbaud (Rimbaud, Arthur), Stéphane Mallarmé (Mallarmé, Stéphane), and Tristan Corbière (Corbière, Tristan) among themselves. Another significant figure was the novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans (Huysmans, Joris-Karl), who developed interest in the esoteric and whose À rebours (1884; Against the Grain) was called by Arthur Symons (Symons, Arthur) “the breviary of the Decadence.”

      In England the Decadents were 1890s figures such as Arthur Symons (“the blond angel”), Oscar Wilde (Wilde, Oscar), Ernest Dowson (Dowson, Ernest), and Lionel Johnson, who were members of the Rhymers' Club or contributors to The Yellow Book.

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  • décadent — décadent, ente [ dekadɑ̃, ɑ̃t ] adj. et n. • 1516, repris au XIXe; lat. médiév. decadens → décadence 1 ♦ Qui est en décadence. Période, époque décadente. Art décadent. Monarchie décadente. Peuple décadent. 2 ♦ (v. 1882) L école décadente : l… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • decadent — DECADÉNT, Ă, decadenţi, te, adj. 1. Care se găseşte în decadenţă, în declin. 2. Care prezintă caracterele decadentismului; propriu decadentismului. – Din fr. décadent. Trimis de claudia, 13.09.2007. Sursa: DEX 98  decadént adj. m., pl.… …   Dicționar Român

  • decadent — (adj.) in a state of decline or decay (from a former condition of excellence), 1837, from Fr. décadent, back formation from décadence (see DECADENCE (Cf. decadence)). In reference to literary (later, other artistic) schools that believed, or… …   Etymology dictionary

  • decadent — [dek′ə dənt; ] also [ di kād′ nt] adj. [Fr décadent: see DECADENCE] in a state of decline; characterized by decadence n. 1. a decadent person, esp. a writer or artist active in a period of decadence 2. [often D ] any of a group of late 19th cent …   English World dictionary

  • Decadent — De*ca dent, n. One that is decadent, or deteriorating; esp., one characterized by, or exhibiting, the qualities of those who are degenerating to a lower type; specif. applied to a certain school of modern French writers. The decadents and… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • décadent — décadent, ente (entrée créée par le supplément) (dé ka dan, dan t ) adj. Néologisme par latinisme individuel. Qui est en décadence. •   Entre un peuple décadent et, paraît il, épuisé, qui enfante encore de tels ouvrages, et des nations toutes… …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • Decadent — De*ca dent, a. Decaying; deteriorating. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • decadent — I adjective breaking down, cankered, corrosive, corrupt, crumbling, debauched, decaying, declining, decomposing, decrepit, degenerate, degenerating, depraved, deteriorated, deteriorating, dilapidated, disintegrating, effete, failing, falling,… …   Law dictionary

  • decadent — [adj] corrupt, self indulgent debased, debauched, decaying, declining, degenerate, degraded, depraved, dissolute, effete, evil, gone bad, gone to the dogs*, immoral, lost, moribund, overripe, perverted, wanton, wicked; concept 545 Ant. benevolent …   New thesaurus

  • decadent — ► ADJECTIVE 1) characterized by moral or cultural decline. 2) luxuriously self indulgent. DERIVATIVES decadence noun decadently adverb. ORIGIN French, from Latin decadentia; related to DECAY(Cf. ↑decay) …   English terms dictionary

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