Word of the Day

: October 8, 2024

exorbitant

adjective ig-ZOR-buh-tunt

What It Means

Exorbitant describes something that goes far beyond what is fair, reasonable, or expected (as by being too high, too expensive, etc.).

// The cost of our stay was so exorbitant you would have thought that we had bought the hotel and not just spent a few nights there.

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exorbitant in Context

“Facing budgetary pressure and dwindling state funding, higher education seems increasingly uninterested in fighting for the greater good. Such purpose is sacrificed for more short-sighted pursuits that appear to justify the exorbitant cost of college.” — Pepper Stetler, LitHub.com, 23 Aug. 2024

Did You Know?

Not all who wander are lost, but at one time such errant souls might have been called exorbitant. Exorbitant traces back to the Late Latin verb exorbitare, meaning “to deviate,” which in turn was formed by combining the prefix ex- (“out of”) with the noun orbita, which referred to the rut or track of a wheel. While exorbitant could describe something moving erratically—physically straying from its usual course—it was also applied figuratively to other “wanderers,” such as off-topic remarks, powers going beyond the scope of the law, and even sinful people, i.e., those no longer on the straight and narrow. Eventually, exorbitant developed its extended sense as a synonym of excessive, and it is now used to describe that which exceeds appropriate or customary limits in intensity, quality, amount, or size.