Episode 18

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Published on:

3rd Mar 2026

Episode 18: opulent

The Greeks and Romans have left behind so much: not just literature, but roads, vases, statues, and buildings. In today's episode, we use this "material culture" of the ancient world as an entry point for thinking about the word "opulent," which itself draws on a multiple words from Latin. To think through the notion of opulence, both ancient and modern, we consider a passage from Joan Didion's seminal collection of essays, The White Album.

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Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

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About the Podcast

Original Public Meaning
Exploring the ancient roots of modern words
Where do our modern English words come from? And what do their long histories tell us about the wider world today? On Original Public Meaning, we unearth ancient etymology and consider how our vast, rich literature—fiction, essays, science, and more—can help us savor our words today.
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Charles McNamara

Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Georgia