¹lavish

profuse, lavish, prodigal, luxuriant, lush, exuberant mean giving or given out in great abundance. profuse implies pouring forth without restraint <profuse apologies>. lavish suggests an unstinted or unmeasured profusion <a lavish party>. prodigal implies reckless or wasteful lavishness threatening to lead to early exhaustion of resources <prodigal spending>. luxuriant suggests a rich and splendid abundance <a luxuriant beard>. lush suggests rich, soft luxuriance <a lush green lawn>. exuberant implies marked vitality or vigor in what produces abundantly <an exuberant imagination>.

Lavish comes from an older English noun lavish that meant “plenty.” This noun probably came from a medieval French word lavasse, “a heavy rain.” This French word is derived from a verb laver, “to wash,” which goes back to Latin lavare. Other English words that ultimately trace back to lavare are lavatory and laundry.