Viveur

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A character who leads a life filled with excitement and indulgence typically seeks out pleasure and enjoys social and luxurious experiences
2. An individual who revels in hedonistic pursuits often immerses themselves in enjoyment and seeks thrilling and sumptuous encounters
3. A person characterized by a lifestyle of pleasure-seeking often engages in various forms of enjoyment, including luxuries and vibrant social interactions

Etymology: The word "viveur" is a French borrowing, and its core is the ordinary French verb "vivre," meaning "to live." Its French ancestor is the Latin "vivere," with the same sense, so the English word is essentially "one who lives" pushed toward a particular kind of living. In French the suffix "-eur" forms agent nouns, so "viveur" is literally a person who lives in a certain way, and the pleasure-seeking sense developed from there. The "-eur" ending comes from Latin "-ātor," a suffix that marked someone who performs an action, and it passed through Old French and Middle French into modern French. English took the finished French noun whole, so the word arrived with its French form and sense rather than being built from English parts.