voracious

Etymology

It is from Latin vorāx (“swallowing greedily, devouring”),^[2][3][4][5] with the suffix -ious,^[3][6][7][8] which the OED and Klein give as -ous.^[2][9] Etymonline and Dictionary.com instead take it as an adjective formed to voracity,^[10][11] a noun that Hoad dates to the 16th century.^[6] The Latin adjective is from vorō (“to swallow, devour”).^[4][6][7][9] Klein traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *gʷer- (“to swallow, devour”),^[9] and compares Ancient Greek βορά (borá, “food”), βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to devour”) and Lithuanian gerti (“to drink”);^[9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds Old High German querdar (“bait”), Old Norse krās (“dainty, tidbit”) and Latin gurges (“whirlpool”).^[3] The OED compares French vorace, Italian vorace and Spanish voraz.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Marked by greed: 1635, in J. Taylor's Olde, Old Man.^[2][3] Etymonline likewise says the 1630s,^[10] and Dictionary.com gives the range 1625–35.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first record describes greedy behaviour in general, and the OED's sense also covers figurative use.^[2] The sense of an animal that eats greedily and in large amounts is recorded from 1693, in Congreve's translation of Juvenal; the OED notes that it was rarely said of people.^[2] It was used of desires and interests from 1712, in Addison,^[2] of people greedy or eager in some pursuit from 1746,^[2] and of things from 1767.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "greedy to eat; ravenous", and his 1773 edition added "rapacious; greedy".^[12] Collins's voracious reading continues the figurative line.^[5]

Timeline

• 1635 – marked by greed, also figuratively.^[2][3]
• 1693 – of animals, eating greedily and in great quantity.^[2]
• 1712 – of desires and interests, insatiable.^[2]
• 1746 – of people, excessively eager in some desire or pursuit.^[2]
• 1767 – of things, in a transferred sense.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Eating or wanting very large amounts of food; ravenous, gluttonous: a voracious young pike.^[5][3][2]
2. Very eager for some activity or thing; insatiable, avid: She was a voracious collector of maps.^[5][3][2]

Word family

• voraciously
• voraciousness
• unvoracious

Related words

• omnivorous
• voracity
• devour
• -vorous
• carnivorous
• gullet
• veracious

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.