avidity

[Fr. avid ité; from O. Fr. arvyd vehement desire; Ital. avidita, avid i tade, aviditate; Lat. avid it as, from avid us = eager; aveo or haveo = to be joyful or lively.] Insatiable desire; exce ive eagerne ; appetite, especially of an inordinate kind; covetousne . (Used of the sensual appetites, or of other desires.) "Has he not usurped with equal avidity the city of Bosphorus on the frozen Mæotis, and the vale of palm trees on the shores of the Red Sea?"-Gibbon: Decline and Fall , ch. xlii.