Concupiscent (pronounced kon-kyoo-pi-suhnt or kong-kyoo-pi-suhnt)
(1) Lustful or sensual.
(2) Eagerly desirous.
1400–1450:
From the Latin concupīscent, stem of concupīscēns, present participle of concupīscere (to conceive ardent desire
for), the construct being con + cup (stem of cupere) (to desire) + īscent,
variant of ēscent (a suffix of adjectives
borrowed from Latin, where it had an inchoative force; often corresponding to
verbs in esce and nouns in escence).
For turgid poets, and there have been a few, the most used Latin forms
were concupiscentem, concupīscere and
concupiscence. The most usually cited modern derivation is Cupid
(Latin Cupīdō, meaning
"desire"), in classical mythology, the god of desire, erotic love,
attraction and affection. Poets good and
bad can’t resist concupiscent because (1) lots of them like big words and (2)
there are many words in English with which to rhyme.
Of sin
For Saint Augustine (354-430), who explored the matter in Confessions (394-400), concupiscence was a damnable word with which to refer to sinful lust. It was the sin of the temptress Eve in the Garden of Eden which was carried by concupiscence, or as Augustine preferred, "hurtful desire". From her wanton caresses in Eden was man condemned to descend to a massa damnata (a condemned crowd, a mass of perdition). As Adam and Eve sinned, all was corrupted and their descendants now live in sin, an inescapable conclusion because in Eden, the two were all humanity and therefore all who followed inherited the original sin.
A thousand-odd years later, Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), while not disputing Augustine, used the word to differentiate between his two flavors of "sensuality". There was the concupiscible, which he characterized as the instincts of pursuit and avoidance and the irascible, describing the instincts of aggression and defense. To the former he ascribed joy and sadness, love and hate, desire and repugnance; to the latter, anger, daring and fear, hope and despair.
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