The Prince's Word of the Day: Cupidity

Upon reviewing my e-mails from during my Internet blackout, I came across what seemed to be an holiday appropriate Word of the Day on Feburary 13.

The word that popped up in my inbox was "cupidity."

"How precious!" I thought. But then I read the definition and was thunderstruck. Cupidity means "eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice." What a mindjob! Dictionary.com sends me a word of the day on the day before Valentine's Day with "cupid" as its root word and that's what it means? That sucks.

I would think "cupidity" would be something like "the practice of matchmaking or meddling in one's love affairs" or "the propensity to practice archery in a diaper." The real definition is kind of a downer.

But there is some hope. Since the root ultimately comes from the Latin word cupere, which means "to desire," we cans still use one of my better, cooler definitions. So get on it.