cupidity

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The Word of the Day for September 13 is:

cupidity   \kyoo-PID-uh-tee\   noun
    *1 : inordinate desire for wealth : avarice, greed 
     2 : strong desire : lust

Example sentence:
     "Capitalism is a mechanism for coping with cupidity, not 
for enhancing it." (William F. Buckley, Jr., _The National 
Review_, June 2003)

Did you know?
     From its verb "cupere" ("to desire") Latin derived three 
nouns which have passed with minimal modification into 
English. "Cupiditas" meant "yearning" and "greed, avarice"; 
English borrowed this as "cupidity." Originally, it also 
meant  "yearning" and "greed, avarice," though only the latter 
is now used. 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."