concupiscence

plural concupiscences

1. countableuncountableAn ardent desire, especially sexual desire; lust.

   Quite certainly you command me to refrain from concupiscence of the flesh and concupiscence of the eyes and worldy pride.

   1997, St. Augustine, The Confessions, X, 30, 41. translated by Maria Boulding

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   [Y]it haue vvee one thing in our ſelues and of our ſelues, (euen originall ſinne, concupiſcence or luſt) vvhich neuer ceaſeth too egge vs and allure vs from God, and too ſtaine vs vvith all kinde of vnclennes: […]

   1571, Arthur Golding, “To the Right Honorable and His Verie Good Lord Edward de Vere Erle of Oxinford, […]”, in John Calvin, translated by Arthur Golding, The Psalmes of Dauid and Others. With M. Iohn Caluin’s Commentaries, London: […] Thomas East and Henry Middelton; for Lucas Harison, and G[e]orge Byshop, →OCLC, 1st part, folio iiij, recto

   for as St. Jerome observes, it is to shew that the true Christian not setting his heart upon the goods of the Earth, ought to trample under foot, all Avarice and immoderate concupiscence of corruptible riches: […]

   1662, Jacques Olivier, translated by Richard Banke, A Discourse of Women, Shewing Their Imperfections Alphabetically, →OCLC, page 5

   Poor Miss Tita's sense of her failure had produced an extraordinary alteration in her, but I had been too full of my literary concupiscence to think of that. Now I perceived it; I can scarcely tell how it startled me.

   1888 September 29, Henry James, “[The Aspern Papers.] Chapter IX.”, in The Aspern Papers; Louisa Pallant; The Modern Warning, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 135–136

   He was torn by two intense and conflicting desires: his ardent wish to advance through his association with Mr. Browning, and his concupiscence.

   1973, Rex Stout, Please Pass the Guilt

   Skaters, spinning like atoms across fields of pure light, are desirable in a way that transcends mere concupiscence; they inhabit another element, and the man who would try to catch one risks, literally, falling on his ass.

   1994, Newsweek, winter

2. countableuncountableCatholicismthe desire of a person's lower appetite, contrary to reason, which subjugates and inclines them to experience temptation and to give in to sin, due to the Fall and original sin.

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   [“]Since concupiscence is the most common form of temptation, it is better for him to know something about it. The soul cannot be humbled by fasts and prayer; it must be broken by mortal sin to experience forgiveness of sin and rise to a state of grace. Otherwise, religion is nothing but dead logic.”

   1927, Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Book V, section 1, page 147