Wanton and dissipation

[conuly]

Them: If you’re familiar with the meanings of wanton and dissipation, could you please describe them in a way that will help me never confuse them with other words or forget their meaning?

Me: Oh, there is no way the comments to this post are going to be helpful.

And I was half right! I was just about the only person to give the asked-for definition of "dissipation". As predicted, everybody else used the science sense rather than the moral decay sense. What surprised me is that they also all defined the word "wanton" in terms of violence rather than sexual promiscuity.

Anyway, I said myself that dissipation (meaning debauchery) is an old-fashioned term and that I'm not quite sure how I even know that one off the top of my head, but then the next day I was re-reading Ancillary Justice and there it is, right in the first few chapters. Seivarden is in a bad state due to her dissipated lifestyle, and that's the word used to describe it. Huh. (But I think I already knew that word before I read the book for the first time.)

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Comments

[sovay]

(But I think I already knew that word before I read the book for the first time.)

My favorite use of the word is in A Tale of Two Cities (1859), describing Sydney Carton by daylight "going home stealthily and unsteadily to his lodgings, like a dissipated cat."

[magid]

At least no one gave a definition of wonton rather than wanton? (My default is the same as yours for dissipation, but for wanton, while I know the promiscuous definition, I think the phrase ‘wanton violence’ has become so much louder I can understand why that’s first in people’s minds.)

The idea of a two-hour tour of a moon makes me think of The Little Prince.

[conuly]

One person did use wontons being thrown about with wild abandon to describe the phrase "wanton violence". It certainly is a memorable image!

[magid]

I could imagine certain comedians doing an incredible skit based on flung wontons.

[moon_custafer]

If it’s a memorable explanation they want, I once saw someone explain wanton with the punchline: “your heroine should *not* be moaning like a Chinese dumpling.”

[conuly]

I mean, unless you're into that sort of thing.

[gingicat]

I really want someone to put statues of the Little Prince and his rose on that moon.

[conuly]

If only we had the cash.

[lilysea]

I would define wanton as

wilful, heedless, reckless

doing things without thought to social expectations/social consequences

doing things without thought to practical/physical consequences.

[carbonel]

My first thought was that "wanton" is primarily an adjective (and is more likely to be applied to a person) and "dissipation" is a noun (and so is more likely to be used more generically). But that may be the copyeditor in me coming out.

[jessie_c]

What do they know? Wanton is obviously the mass of 1000 Kilograms.

[conuly]

And how many wontons is that?

[magid]

That sounds like a question for Randall Monroe of xkcd fame.

[jessie_c]

The exact number has never been determined, because they dissipate too quickly.

[darkoshi]

::snort:: :)

[zavodilaterrarium]

Also surprised that they thought of violence first. Didn’t know dissipation had that definition though.

I know about the mealworms from uni!!! Cool stuff.

[ethelmay]

There is apparently a legal term "wanton dissipation," which appears to mean something like the concept my dad was referring to when he used to say, "It's not like I spent it on gin and bubble-gum!"