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Avarice vs Greed

Seems odd that avarice should redirect to greed, when the article for greed does not even mention the word avarice. I might be mistaken, but I thought avarice, not greed, was the "deadly sin". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.10.108.49 (talk) 21:32, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

They are the same thing. His royal majesty, Lord Holy Ono (talk) 23:49, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Is that a fact? I may be in the wrong, but I believe greed usually refers to an excessive desire to have more, while avarice rather means (I think) being a miser, i.e. excessively unwilling to spend or share one's wealth. Though the meanings are related, they are not the same. For instance, somebody who is rich, not getting richer but spending just enough to survive is guilty of avarice rather than greed...
The article currently emphasizes the unnecessary acquisition of wealth rather than the unnecessary hoarding of wealth. But it is interesting to note that the list of capital sins in various European languages usually contain a word implying (my possibly misguided definition of) avarice rather than greed. Ratfox (talk) 03:09, 9 August 2008 (UTC)
"Avarice" is the French word for "greed" (check in a dictionary if you don't believe me). Both words describe rigorously the same thing. "Avarice" came to English through Old French from the Lation "avaritia" itself deriving from the adjective "avarus" which means "greedy" ("avare" in French).
Do take note that although in English "avarice" and "greed" mean the same thing, there's a slight difference with the word "cupidity". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.57.12.119 (talk) 18:07, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

A perception that these current synonyms are different, and how they differ (avarice being extreme greed), likely relate to their usage. Avarice has been in decline over the past two hundred years (according to what Google assembles and relate to the word). For greed, its use is the reverse. The decline in the usage of avarice and the rise in the use of greed both correlate quite strongly to the rise of progressivism, and then progressive secularism. This suggests some underlying social condition, likely the rise of limited liability law enabled markets and laissez faire CapitalismFail. The last bump in the use of greed correlates to the "greed-is-good" mantra that justified junk bonds.

Avarice, derived from Latin, is the term for the name of one of the seven deadly sins. The Greek term philarguros, which means 'love of money" translates to 'avarus' also 'avaritie'. That the current use of the term 'avarice' is defined as extreme greed, in this historical context, appears justified. I got here as part work I'm doing for a 'CapitalismFail' page. A differentiation between personal greed and systemic avarice, as we tip into the economic meme's Anthropocene needs to remain a linguistic possibility. OpenToInfo (talk) 17:09, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

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