cupidity: [15] The Latin verb cupere meant ‘desire’ (related forms such as Sanskrit kup- ‘become agitated’, Church Slavonic kypeti ‘boil’, and Latvian kūpēt ‘boil, steam’ suggest that its underlying notion is ‘agitation’). One of its derivatives was the noun cupīdō ‘desire’, which was used as the name of the Roman god of love – hence English cupid [14]. Another was the adjective cupidus ‘desirous’, which produced the further noun cupiditās, source, perhaps via French, of English cupidity, and also ultimately of English covet. Concupiscence [14] also comes from Latin cupere. => concupiscence, covet
mid-15c., from Anglo-French cupidite, Middle French cupidité, from Latin cupiditatem (nominative cupiditas) "passionate desire, lust; ambition," from cupidus "eager, passionate," from cupere "to desire" (perhaps cognate with Sanskrit kupyati "bubbles up, becomes agitated," Old Church Slavonic kypeti "to boil," Lithuanian kupeti "to boil over"). Despite the primarily erotic sense of the Latin word, in English cupidity originally, and still especially, means "desire for wealth."
