• indulgence •
Pronunciation: in-dêl-jênts • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. Tolerance, forbearance, complaisance, relaxation of restraint. 2. A special treat, self-gratification, an unusual luxury.
Notes: Today's word has a large extended family built on the verb indulge "to treat with favor", that comes with the adjective, indulgent, from which indulgence is made. The personal noun is indulger and the passive adjective is indulgeable. If we indulge someone too much, we overindulge them.
In Play: Indulgence as an uncountable noun (no plural) is basically toleration: "At 35 years of age, Milka Macau lived at the home of her parents only by their indulgence." However, it may also be countable when used like this: "Hetty Wein swears she is no alcoholic, it's just that a bottle of wine a day is her favorite indulgence."
Word History: Today's Good Word was copied (without permission) from Old French, which had inherited it from Latin indulgentia "complaisance", the noun from indulgere "to grant, allow, exercise forbearance". Latin legitimately created this word from metathesized PIE dlegh- "to engage, be(come) fixed, lengthen", found also in Sanskrit dirgha "long", Farsi draz "long", and the Latin nasalized version, longus "long" (from dlongus, whence English long via French long). The reason for the sense of "long" in dlegh- is that it is an extension of del-/dol- "long", source also of Russian dolgii "long (time)" and dlinnyi "long (distance), Albanian gjatë "long, tall", Lithuanian ilgas "long", Latvian ilgs "long", and Welsh dal "to hold". (Now a gracious bow to grandmaster of suggestions Rob Towart, who has long indulged us with great Good Words like today's.)
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