Having a strong desire or craving for something, especially food or knowledge.
From Latin appetitus (desire, appetite) combined with -ous (full of). The Latin root comes from appetere (to strive for), literally 'to move toward.' The suffix -itious was influenced by similar formations like ambitious and superstitious.
This word is basically the fancy ancestor of 'appetitive'—when people in the 1600s wanted to sound extra scholarly about cravings, they'd use this form. It's one of those words that reveals how English borrowed patterns from Latin, stacking suffixes like 'appet-' (desire) + '-itious' (inclined to) to create a super-specific adjective.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.