lust
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /lʌst/
rhymes: -ʌst
Forms: form: lusts
Etymology: From Middle English lust, from Old English lust (“lust, pleasure, longing”), from Proto-West Germanic *lustu, from Proto-Germanic *lustuz.
Akin to Old Saxon, Dutch lust, Old Frisian, Old High German, German Lust, Swedish lust, Danish lyst, Icelandic lyst, Old Norse losti, Gothic 𐌻𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃 (lustus), and perhaps to Sanskrit लष् (laṣ), लषति (laṣati, “to desire”) and Albanian lushë (“bitch, savage dog, promiscuous woman”), or to English loose. Compare list (“to please”), listless.
Senses: examples: text: Seeing Leslie fills me with a passionate lust.
glosses: A feeling of strong desire, especially such a feeling driven by sexual arousal.
examples: text: The boarders hide their lust to go home.
text: For little luſt had ſhe to talke of ought, […]
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 21, page 262:
text: [T]he vvorld thruſts it ſelfe betvvixt me and heauen; and, by his darke and indigeſted parts, eclipſeth that light vvhich ſhined to my ſoule. Novv, a ſenſeleſſe dulneſſe ouer-takes mee, and beſots mee; my luſt to deuotion is little, my ioy none at all: Gods face is hid, and I am troubled.
ref: 1608, Joseph Hall, “Epistle I. To Sʳ. Robert Darcy. The Estate of a True, but Weake Christian.”, in Epistles […], volume I, London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Samuel Macham & E[leazar] Edgar […], →OCLC, 2nd decade, page 108:
glosses: A general want or longing, not necessarily sexual.
examples: text: An ideal son is his father's lasting lust.
text: Pompe, pryde, honour, ryches, and wordly lust, / Parrot sayth playnly, shall tourne all to dust.
ref: 1521, John Skelton, Speke Parott; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC:
glosses: A delightful cause of joy, pleasure.
examples: text: It is reported, that Trees will grow greater, and beare better Fruit, if you put Salt, or Lees of Wine, or Bloud to the Root. The Cauſe may be the Encreaſing the Luſt or Spirit of the Root; […]
ref: 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “V. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, paragraph 457, page 119:
glosses: Virility; vigour; active power.
Synonyms: sense: active power
word: lustihood
sense: active power
word: potency
sense: active power
word: vigour
sense: active power
word: virility
word: aphrodisia
word: carnality
word: colt's tooth
word: concupiscence
word: the hots
word: lech
word: love
word: lust
word: pride
word: urge to merge
Hypernyms: word: craving
Hyponyms: word: estromania
word: gynecomania
word: hysteromania
word: nymphomania
word: œstromania
word: uteromania
word: satyriasis
word: satyromania
Derived terms: angel lust
antilust
bloodlust
fall in lust
instalust
luster
lustful
lustic
lustihood
lustily
lustiness
lustless
lustmaking
lust murder
lustsome
lustuous
lustwort
lustworthy
lusty
squanderlust
technolust
unlust
Related terms: word: wanderlust
word: lustfulness
word: randy
word: sex drive