Etymology

lust

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Today it means: A feeling of strong desire, especially such a feeling driven by sexual arousal. Full definition →

Middle English lust ← Old English lust ← Proto-West Germanic *lustu
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lust · noun1

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*lustuz
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*lustu
  3. Old English · inherited fromlust“lust, pleasure, longing”
  4. Middle English · inherited fromlust
  5. English todaylust

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.

lust · verb2

  1. Middle English · inherited fromlusten
  2. English todaylust

From Middle English lusten, from the noun.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*lustuz all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.