Covetous means longing to possess what belongs to somebody else. A covetous glance, covetous of his position, covetous eyes.
The other person's ownership is essential — you can want a car, but you are covetous only of that car. The tenth commandment forbids it, which is unusual in forbidding a feeling rather than an act. Note covet, and the Latin cupiditas, desire.
1adjectivecovetousLonging to possess what belongs to somebody else.
“He cast a covetous eye over his neighbour's shiny new car.”
covetous is a quality of desire.
Anglo-Norman cuveitus comes from Latin cupiditas, desire, from cupere, to desire. Cupid is the same longing.
Latin
cupiditas — desire
Anglo-Norman
*cuveitus
Middle English
coveitous
English, today
covetous
From Middle English coveitous, from Anglo-Norman cuveitus, from Medieval Latin - as if cupiditosus, from Latin cupiditas (“desire”); see covet.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA