different between cupidity vs acquisitive

English

Etymology

From French cupidité, from Latin cupidit?s (“strong desire”), from cupidus (“keen, desirous”). Compare Cupid.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kju??p?d?ti/

Noun

cupidity (countable and uncountable, plural cupidities)

1. Extreme greed, especially for wealth.
   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, Volume the First, page 11 ?ISBN

     His affairs, however, were not allowed to subside thus quietly, and people were quite as much inclined to talk about the disinterested sacrifice he had made, as they had before been to upbraid him for his cupidity.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 784:

     It was easy to dissimulate and disperse these modest purchases in such a way as not to excite the cupidity of any passing patrols.

Synonyms

• (extreme greed): avarice, covetousness; see also Thesaurus:greed

Related terms

• cupid

Translations

Anagrams

• pudicity

English

Adjective

acquisitive (comparative more acquisitive, superlative most acquisitive)

1. (obsolete) Acquired.
2. Able or disposed to make acquisitions; acquiring.

   He is an acquisitive person.

   She has an acquisitive nature.

3. Dispositioned toward acquiring and retaining information.

Translations

References

• acquisitive in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

French

Adjective

acquisitive

1. feminine singular of acquisitif

Italian

Adjective

acquisitive

1. feminine plural of acquisitivo