covet

verb; formal, often disapproving

- to want something very much, especially something belonging to another person.

- to want something strongly for oneself.

- to desire another person’s possession excessively or wrongfully.

Cambridge Dictionary, Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

English has used "covet" since the 13th century. Middle English coveiten came through Anglo-French coveiter and Old French coveitier, meaning to desire or lust after. These forms are traced to the reconstructed Vulgar Latin cupidietare, derived from Latin cupiditas, “desire” or “passionate longing”, and ultimately cupere, “to desire”.

Covet shares a deep root with cupidity and with Cupid, the Roman personification of desire.

Its earliest English uses already suggested excessive or improper wanting. The verb later broadened to include eager desire for an award or position, although the old shadow of envy remains.

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WHEN NEXT DOOR WINS

Imagine opening the curtains and seeing a brand-new car next door. Your income hasn’t changed, but your sense of what counts as enough may have. Economists have found this reaction outside imagination. In one study, Peter Kuhn and colleagues examined postcode-lottery winners and nearby households. People who lived next door to winners spent significantly more on cars, despite not winning anything themselves. A later study used lottery wins as sudden changes in neighbours’ relative income. Larger prizes were followed by increased borrowing and bankruptcy among nearby households. 

The researchers didn’t claim that envy explains every purchase. A winner may introduce neighbours to better products, change local expectations or simply make visible consumption harder to ignore. Still, the pattern exposes an awkward feature of desire: it often needs a reference point.

Psychologists call the wider process "social comparison". We judge our success not only against our past or our needs, but against people who seem sufficiently like us. A billionaire’s yacht may be remote fantasy; a colleague’s new car can feel like evidence of falling behind.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

COVET, crave, desire, envy, hanker after, long for, lust after, pine for, want, yearn for

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“People don’t usually need new things, but they often COVET those of others.” 

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