From Middle English appetit, from Old French apetit (French appétit), from Latin appetitus, from appetere; ad + petere.

• (RP) IPA: /ˈæpɪtaɪt/
• (America) IPA: /ˈæpəˌtaɪt/

appetite

1. Desire to eat food or consume drink.
   • 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of Black Peter:

     And I return with an excellent appetite. There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC ↗:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it.

2. Any strong desire; an eagerness or longing.
   • 1678, Antiquitates Christianæ: Or, the History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: […], London: […] E. Flesher, and R. Norton, for R[ichard] Royston, […], →OCLC ↗:

     If God had given to eagles an appetite to swim.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 9, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC ↗:

     To gratify the vulgar appetite for the marvellous.

3. The desire for some personal gratification, either of the body or of the mind.

   appetite for reading

   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the page):

     The object of appetite is whatsoever sensible good may be wished for; the object of will is that good which reason does lead us to seek.

• craving, longing, desire, appetency, passion

• French: appétit
• German: Appetit
• Italian: appetito
• Portuguese: apetite
• Russian: аппети́т
• Spanish: apetito, deseo, ganas

• German: Begierde, Lust
• Portuguese: apetite
• Russian: охо́та

• Russian: жа́жда