Dictionary

embarrassment of riches en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Calque of French embarras des richesses, from John Ozell's 1738 translation of a French play, L'Embarras des richesses (1726) by Léonor Jean Christine Soulas d'Allainval.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) An abundance or overabundance of something; too much of a good thing.
   • What might be an embarrassment of riches—a city with three independent and artistically distinct opera companies—may become a lose-lose-lose situation. 2006 January 8, Daniel Ginsberg, “Opera in Berlin: A Staat of Flux”, in Washington Post, page N06:
   • Roger was in the library, trying to choose, from an embarrassment of riches, the ten of his father's books which he was to be permitted to take to the city. 1908, Myrtle Reed, chapter 23, in Flower of the Dusk:

Forms

Translations (7)

fi runsaudenpula (too much of a good thing) · pl embarras de richesse (too much of a good thing) · he צרות של עשירים (too much of a good thing) · fr embarras du choix (too much of a good thing) · de Qual der Wahl (too much of a good thing) · pl klęska urodzaju (too much of a good thing) · it imbarazzo della scelta (too much of a good thing)