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Avarice

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(pronounced av-uh-ris)  noun

Definition

extreme or insatiable greed for wealth or gain; immoderate or compulsive desire for money or other material possessions; cupidity.

Other Forms

Avaricious  (pronounced av-uh-rish-us)  adjective

Main Example

• Consider this to be an extension of the main example for peripatetic. Many Americans, including this author, were greatly offended by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon’s harsh criticism of John Kerry earlier this month for the latter’s Middle East peace efforts. Yaalon used terms like “his misplaced obsession” and “messianic fervor” to describe Kerry, adding “The only thing that can save us is for Kerry to win the Nobel Prize and leave us in peace.” According to analysts, Yaalon was giving voice to the avaricious elements within Israel who abhor the very idea of peace with Palestinians because that would mean Israel having to give up some of the illegally occupied land in the West Bank.

Workplace Examples

• At the party I went to last night, the only things people talked about were who made a killing in the stock market, starting salaries for top school MBAs, the square footage of somebody’s McMansion, various features of the newest mega-SUV, where to get the best Persian carpets, and so on. The conversations were just dripping with avarice.
• Have you seen the critically acclaimed 2005 movie “Syriana”? Its story is based on a career CIA operative’s real-life experiences, and it’s one movie which, in my opinion, every American should see because it deepens one’s insight into how our world works. One of the many things it depicts, most brilliantly, is the evil that can result when powerful government officials do the bidding of an industry captain whose avarice has no moral limits...who is avariciously intent upon maximizing his wealth, no matter what.

Other Examples

• the avarice that has characterized some art museums, as they continuously compete for bragging rights with regard to their collection of priceless art and antiquities, landing a top official of The Getty Museum in big trouble: its former chief antiquities curator Marion True was indicted a few years ago for conspiring with dealers to traffic in stolen Greek and Italian antiquities
• the avaricious leaders of some nations in Africa and Asia who, during their years of corrupt rule, secretly built huge bank accounts in Europe
• the avarice of the former chiefs of Tyco International and Adelphia Communications, later convicted of “looting their companies,” landing them in jail
• the extremely tragic “Trail of Tears” of 1838-39, when thousands of Cherokee Indians died during their long, forced march from Georgia to what is now Oklahoma, thanks to President Andrew Jackson dishonorably defying the U.S. Supreme Court and the State of Georgia then avariciously evicting the Cherokees from their homeland because gold had been discovered there just a few years earlier

© 2014 V.J. Singal
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