(sib-uh-RIT-ik)

(adj.)Devoted to sensuality, pleasure, and luxurious living

In the 8th century B.C., some Greeks set out to form a colony on the shores of southern Italy, and called it Sybaris. The Sybarites grew so prosperous that their name soon became synonymous with a devotion to luxury and pursuit of pleasure. Didn't last long though: a couple hundred years later Sybaris proved to be an easy mark for invaders, who razed the city and diverted a river to cover the ruins.

"And so the two sybaritic septuagenarians stripped down to their Strumpfhosen and sank into the sumptuous (but waterless) tub - well, the young puppy of a clerk didn't know whether to avert his gaze or climb in with them, just to clinch the sale."--Karen Elizabeth Gordon, The Disheveled Dictionary.