English
rapacity
Rapacity comes from Middle French rapacité.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English rapacity
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, Of Animals of the Hare Kind: “Animals of the hare kind, like all others that…”.
Lineage
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600rapacitéWiktionary, English rapacity
- Englishearliest quotation 1791rapacityWiktionary, English rapacity. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, Of Animals of the Hare Kind: “Animals of the hare kind, like all others that…”
Formed from rapacious + -ity
Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁p- ‘to take away, snatch’
Proto-Indo-European *h₁r̥h₁pyéti
Proto-Italic *rapjō ‘to seize, take away’
Latin rapiō ‘to grab’
Latin rapāx ‘grasping, greedy’
English rapacious
Every English word from Middle French rapacité
Today it means
noun The quality of being rapacious; voracity.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “rapacity”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Middle French rapacité / rapacity