concupiscible

English

Etymology

From Middle English concupiscibill, concupiscibl, concupiscible, concupyscyble, concupyssible, from Middle French concupiscible and its etymon, Latin concupīscibilis.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kənˈkjuːpɪsɪbəl/

Adjective

concupiscible (comparative more concupiscible, superlative most concupiscible)

1. (archaic) Greatly to be desired or lusted after; exciting concupiscence.
   • 1762, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXXVII, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume VI, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […], →OCLC, page 146:

     For never did thy eyes behold, or thy concupiscence covet, anything in this world more concupiscible than widow Wadman.

2. (archaic) Pertaining to concupiscence or lust; characterized by strong desire.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     He would not, but by gift of my chaste body / To his concupiscible intemperate lust, / Release my brother […]

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     Perturbations and passions, which trouble the fantasy, though they dwell between the confines of sense and reason, yet they rather follow sense than reason because they are drowned in corporeal organs of sense. They are commonly reduced into two inclinations, irascible and concupiscible.

3. (theology) Relating to the concupiscible passions
   • 2015, Jeffrey Froula, “Aquinas on the Moral Neutrality of the Passion of Despair”, in New Blackfriars:

     The irascible and concupiscible appetites are distinguished by different aspects of their objects. The object of the concupiscible faculty "is sensible good or evil, simply apprehended as such" while good and evil considered as "arduous or difficult … is the object of the irascible faculty."

Derived terms

• concupiscibleness

 

Spanish

Adjective

concupiscible m or f (masculine and feminine plural concupiscibles)

1. concupiscible

Further reading

• “concupiscible”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10