pleonexia

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πλεονεξία (pleonexía, “greediness”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pli.əˈnɛks.i.ə/

Noun

pleonexia (usually uncountable, plural pleonexias)

1. Excessive or insatiable greed, avarice, covetousness, the desire to have more, a greedy desire for certain goods.
   • 1838, Thomas Watson, A body of practical divinity, consisting of above one hundred seventy six sermons on the lesser catechism composed by the reverend assembly of divines at Westminster:

     There are two words in the Greek which set forth the nature of covetousness: 1. Pleonexia, which signifies an 'insatiable desire of getting the world.' Covetousness is a dry dropsy.

   • 1878 March 1, The Fortnightly Review, volume 29, page 313:

     Pleonexia, or greed, the wishing and trying for the bigger share, we know under the name of covetousness.

   • 2007, Pul Bloomfield, Morality and Self-Interest, page 257:

     Like all character traits, pleonexia comes in degrees, but in its most extreme form, pleonectics are willing to do “whatever it takes” to “get what they want” and are bound only by their fear of punishment; they do not blanch at the thought of using or manipulating people as pawns or instruments in their own schemes or at acts of disloyalty and betrayal; in fact, such behavior may be their typical modus operandi.

Related terms

• pleonectic