From its verb "cupere" ("to desire") Latin derived three nouns which have passed with minimal modification into English. Cupiditas meant "yearning and "desire"; English borrowed this as "cupidity," which originally in the 15th century was synonymous with "lust." (The "greed" meaning of "cupidity" developed very soon after this other now-archaic meaning.) Latin cupido started out as a near synonym of "cupiditas," but it came to stand for the personification of specifically carnal desire, the counterpart of Greek eros; this is the source of our familiar (and rather domesticated) Cupid. A strengthened form of "cupere" - concupiscere, meaning "to desire ardently - yielded the noun "concupiscentia" in the Late Latin of the Christian church. "Concupiscentia" came specially to denote sexual desire, a meaning reflected in the English version concupiscence, meaning "sexual desire."
The evidence revealed the cupidity of the company's directors. reports of great treasure in the Indies inflamed the cupidity of Columbus's crew
Recent Examples on the WebCall the content misdemeanor populism, representing in each instance the recourse of someone motivated by need or only petty cupidity. Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2022 In Williams’s telling, the capitalists turned against slavery out of cupidity rather than humanity. James Oakes, The New York Review of Books, 23 Mar. 2021 What keeps us from tuning out is the infectious energy of an ensemble that delights in its characters’ displays of cupidity and stupidity, and the storybook ingenuity of the physical production. Ben Brantley, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2018 And if anyone shall be led by his cupidity or arrogance to break this truce, by the authority of God and with the sanction of this Council he shall be anathematized. James Carroll, The New Yorker, 28 Mar. 2017 The cupidity of the government and white real estate developers leaves working-class locals, women especially, with few options. Jennifer Senior, New York Times, 29 June 2016 Cupidity and corruption perform, year after year, their reverse magic. Dwight Garner, New York Times, 10 Mar. 2016 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English cupidite, from Anglo-French cupidité, from Latin cupiditat-, cupiditas — more at covet