Origin: Latin suffix -ive
Expensive has 2 different meanings across 1 category:
Given to expending a lot of money; profligate, lavish.
"The heir was so expensive that he spent his entire fortune on gold jewelry before turning thirty."
In plain English: Expensive means something costs a lot of money to buy.
"That new phone is too expensive for me to buy right now."
Usage: Use "expensive" to describe an item or service that costs a high amount of money, not to describe someone who spends money recklessly. The meaning referring to wasteful or lavish spending belongs to the obsolete definition and should be avoided in modern usage.
The word expensive comes from the Latin expēnsīvus, which originally described something that required paying out money. Over time, this term entered English to mean high-priced and eventually became the preferred way to describe costly items rather than using older words like "dear."