Other forms: coveted, covets, coveting
To covet is to want badly something that belongs to another. Covet his position, a coveted prize, thou shalt not covet.
The belonging-to-another part is essential, and it is what makes the word a moral one — coveting is wanting what is not yours to want. Thou shalt not covet is the tenth commandment, and it is unusual among them in forbidding a feeling rather than an act. Coveted as an adjective is neutral and very common: a coveted award simply means one many people want.
1verbcovetTo want badly something that belongs to another.
“He had always coveted his neighbour's shiny red sports car.”
covet is a wanting.
Old French covoitier comes from a Vulgar Latin form of Latin cupiditas, desire, from cupere, to desire. Cupidity and Cupid come from the same wanting.
Latin
cupiditas
Old French
covoitier
Middle English
coveten
English, today
covet
Built from
From Middle English coveten, coveiten, coveyten, from Old French covoitier (modern French convoiter), from covoitié (“desire”), presumably modified from Latin cupiditas.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA