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Faustian
Definitions
- 1 Of or pertaining to Faust, especially in the sense of being willing to abandon one's principles or values in order to pursue knowledge, wealth or other benefits.
"But along with this growth, there is at the same time developed in his breast, a Faustian conflict between the passion for accumulation, and the desire for enjoyment."
- 1 pertaining to or resembling or befitting Faust or Faustus especially in insatiably striving for worldly knowledge and power even at the price of spiritual values wordnet
Etymology
From the surname of the German alchemist and magician Johann Georg Faust (c. 1466 or 1480 – c. 1541) + -ian (suffix forming relational adjectives or nouns). According to medieval legend, Faust made a contract with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Purported tales about Faust’s life first appeared in print in an anonymously written chapbook, Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1587). The story was then particularly popularized by two plays, Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragicall History of D. Faustus (first published 1604) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust (published 1808 and 1832).
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