Word of the Day:
desideratum
What It Means
Something that is wished for, or considered desirable, particularly when thought to be essential.
Desideratum in Context
“I shall now, agreeably to your request, endeavour to point out some of the principal Desiderata of the science of Natural History, and the most effectual means to be pursued for the Advancement of Science.”
Did You Know?
Learned borrowing from Latin dēsīderātum (“something that is desired”), neuter nominative singular of dēsīderātus, the passive past participle of dēsīderāre (“to desire”), from dēsīderō (“to desire, want, wish for”), from de- (intensifying prefix) + possibly sīdus (“star; constellation”) though the connection is unclear. The English word is cognate with French desideratum, Spanish desiderátum. The plural is derived from Latin dēsīderāta.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: desideratum (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the word and reformatted its meaning, examples and origin.
Cite this entry: “desideratum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/desideratum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
