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In an advertisement for its new ship Queen Anne in the i on 18 November the Cunard Line says that two years and one day later she will be visiting
"Lisbon, Portugal
"Among its rooftops, Gothic towers and decadent domes burst from a sea of red-tiled buildings, while at ground level you'll see elegant shops, graceful palacios and ancient ruins."
Not quite, I think. There is a logical thread you can follow to get to this use of "decadent". I think the idea is that a well-structured society is supposed to involve asceticism and personal moral rigor and self-restraint. When these societies decay, you see the rise of indulgence and opulence. Then those who approve of indulgence and opulence, at least in a particular context, re-appropriate the term to praise them.
You don't have to buy the underlying theory that ascetic societies are the best ones, but given that that theory exists, you can't really say that the usage is illogical. --Trovatore (talk) 19:34, 28 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
"Luxury" seems like an apt word to compare; it's cognate with Italian lussuria, one of the seven deadly sins. Wiktionary doesn't seem to take note of this sense surviving in English, but I bet it does. Someone who knows Wiktionary procedures better should probably update this. --Trovatore (talk) 20:32, 28 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
For luxuria in the context of the seven deadly sins, the usual English word is lust. Not an entirely satisfactory equivalent, perhaps, but the Latin word does have a connotation of specifically sexual excess. I don't think luxury is used in this sense these days. Deor (talk) 21:32, 28 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
