An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Lust

by Friedrich Kluge

Lust, feminine, ‘pleasure, delight, fancy, lust,’ from the equivalent Middle High German lust, masculine and feminine, Old High German lust, feminine; corresponding to Gothic lustus, Old Icelandic lyst, Anglo-Saxon lyst, lust, English list, lust, Dutch and Old Saxon lust; a common Teutonic abstract, the origin of which is still dubious. Its relation to lieben (Teutonic root lub, ‘to desire’), as well as to the root lus (see verlieren) is improbable; it is rather connected with a root has, ‘to desire,’ to which is allied Greek λιλαζομαι, Sanscrit root laš (for lals), ‘to desire,’ and also with the Sanscrit root lod, lud, ‘to move.’