Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A strong desire, especially sexual desire; lust.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Improper or illicit desire; sensual appetite; especially, lustful desire or feeling; sensuality; lust.
  • noun Strong desire in general; appetite.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Sexual lust; morbid carnal passion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An ardent desire, especially sexual desire; lust.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a desire for sexual intimacy

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin concupīscentia, from Latin concupīscēns, concupīscent-, present participle of concupīscere, inchoative of concupere, to desire strongly : com-, intensive pref.; see com– + cupere, to desire.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin concupisco ("I desire strongly, I desire eagerly; I covet").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word concupiscence.

Examples

  • Nor, indeed, have we only made use of the term concupiscence, but we have also said that "the fear of God and faith are wanting."

    Apology of the Augsburg Confession Philipp Melanchthon 1528

  • Sin has much more weakened man's will than darkened his intellect, and the rebellion of the sensual appetite, which we call concupiscence, does indeed disturb the understanding, but still it is against the will that it principally stirs up sedition and revolt: so that the poor will, already quite infirm, being shaken with the continual assaults which concupiscence directs against it, cannot make so great progress in divine love as reason and natural inclination suggest to it that it should do.

    Treatise on the Love of God 1567-1622 1884

  • However, the word concupiscence is constantly used for that appetite which exists in fallen man and is an incentive to sin, because it seeks forbidden objects or permissible in an forbidden way.

    Archive 2009-03-22 Esther 2009

  • However, the word concupiscence is constantly used for that appetite which exists in fallen man and is an incentive to sin, because it seeks forbidden objects or permissible in an forbidden way.

    Concupiscence Esther 2009

  • The necessary frustration of desirousness or concupiscence is the chief feature of the calcinatio stage.

    Boing Boing 2007

  • (Rom., viii, l); and why, according to James (i, 14 sqq.), concupiscence as such is really no sin; and it is apparent that St. Paul (Rom., vii, 17) is speaking only figuratively when he calls concupiscence sin, because it springs from sin and brings sin in its train.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 6: Fathers of the Church-Gregory XI 1840-1916 1913

  • The theologians have given the name concupiscence or concupiscible appetite to the passionate greed for sensual things, the effect, according to them, of original sin.

    System of Economical Contradictions: or, the Philosophy of Misery 1888

  • [3] It may remove ambiguity to say that the word concupiscence is here used not in its popular and modern, but its theological acceptation.

    Outlines of Moral Science. 1772-1851 1854

  • To indulge the lust of concupiscence is to live and act like heathens?

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721

  • Fahey called the forces of unorganized naturalism, that is, the concupiscence of each one of us, our own tendency to sin.

    Christendom's Building Blocks — Catholic Communities 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • From Seamus Deane's notes on Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

    "Concupiscence is the appetite of the fallen state. It is an incentive to sin, not a sin in itself."

    April 6, 2007

  • "He too was dinnerless, but in this case it was voluntary and prudential, a penance for lusting after Laura Fielding and (he hoped) a means of reducing his concupiscence..."

    --Patrick O'Brian, Treason's Harbour, 57

    February 15, 2008

  • In Christianity, concupiscence is selfish human desire for an object, person, or experience.

    Edit: blah blah blah....

    August 8, 2009

  • "And how Thou didst deliver me out of the bonds of desire, wherewith I was bound most straitly to carnal concupiscence."

    --The Confessions of Saint Augustine: Book VIII

    August 8, 2009

  • "In Catholicism the term refers to the desire to sin.."

    Especially if curds are involved.

    August 8, 2009

  • concupiscene is a sophisticated word for lust

    October 21, 2009

  • the Concupiscene: a geological epoch the lusty magnitude of which is yet to be matched

    October 21, 2009

  • An interesting, but little used word. My sense, since this is a word I have very seldom encountered, is that it is very much out of style. I can think of no occasions when I would consider using it.

    April 19, 2016