avaricious

English

Alternative forms

• avaritious (obsolete)
• avaricius (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English avaricious, from Old French avaricieux, from avarice, from Latin avaritia (“greed”), from avarus (“greedy”), of avere (“crave, long for”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌævəˈɹɪʃəs/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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Adjective

avaricious (comparative more avaricious, superlative most avaricious)

1. Actuated by avarice; extremely greedy for wealth or material gain; immoderately desirous of accumulating property.
   • 1835, Robert Montgomery Bird, The Hawks of Hawk-Hollow:

     In a word, he was called a hard, avaricious, rapacious man, whose chief business was to enrich himself...

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:greedy

Derived terms

• avariciously
• avariciousness
• overavaricious
• unavaricious

 

Related terms

• avarice

Translations

actuated by avarice

• Armenian: ագահ (hy) (agah)
• Bulgarian: алчен (bg) (alčen), користолюбив (bg) (koristoljubiv)
• Catalan: avariciós (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 愛財／爱财 (zh) (àicái), 貪婪／贪婪 (zh) (tānlán)

• Czech: chamtivý (cs)
• Dutch: inhalig (nl), avaricieus
• Esperanto: avara (eo)
• Finnish: ahne (fi)
• French: avare (fr)
• Georgian: ძუნწი (ʒunc̣i), ხელმოჭერილი (xelmoč̣erili), ხარბი (ka) (xarbi), გაუმაძღარი (gaumaʒɣari), ვერცხლისმოყვარე (vercxlismoq̇vare)
• German: habgierig (de), habsüchtig (de), gierig (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: πλεονέκτης (pleonéktēs), φιλοκερδής (philokerdḗs)

• Hungarian: fösvény (hu)
• Ido: avara (io)
• Irish: gabhálach, maoinchíocrach
• Italian: avaro (it)
• Japanese: 強欲な (ja) (ごうよくな, gōyoku na)
• Latin: avārus
• Maori: avaricious
• Plautdietsch: bejierich
• Polish: skąpy (pl) m, chciwy (pl) m
• Portuguese: avarento (pt)
• Romanian: avar (ro) m
• Russian: а́лчный (ru) (álčnyj), жа́дный (ru) (žádnyj), скупо́й (ru) (skupój), корыстолюби́вый (ru) (korystoljubívyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: sanntach, gionach
• Spanish: avaricioso (es), avaro (es), avariento (es), codicioso (es)
• Swedish: girig (sv)

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “avaricious”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.