a. and sb. [ad. Gr. ἀπολαυστικ-ός, f. ἀπολαύ-ειν to enjoy.]
A. adj. Concerned with or wholly devoted to seeking enjoyment; self-indulgent.
1871. T. Arnold, in Wyclif’s Wks., III. 346, note. ‘Rehetours’ might mean lazy apolaustic fellows, idlers, supernumeraries.
1880. Sat. Rev., No. 1289. 63/1. It [Mr. Adams’s College Days] shows us … the lordly, apolaustic, and haughty undergraduate.
B. collect. sb. A suggested synonym for ÆSTHETICS; the science of the pleasurable.
1836–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., vii. I. 124. Baumgarten … first applied the term Æsthetic to the doctrine which we vaguely … denominate the Philosophy of Taste, the Theory of the Fine Arts…. The term Apolaustic would have been a more appropriate designation.
