desiderium

Latin

Etymology

From dēsīderō (“want, desire, wish for; miss, lack, need”) +‎ -ium.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /deː.siːˈde.ri.um/, [d̪eːs̠iːˈd̪ɛriʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /de.siˈde.ri.um/, [d̪es̬iˈd̪ɛːrium]

Noun

dēsīderium n (genitive dēsīderiī or dēsīderī); second declension

1. longing, desire, wish (especially for something once possessed)

   Synonyms: cupīdō, appetītus, studium, appetītiō, amor, ardor, libīdō, inclīnātiō, prōpēnsiō, avāritia

2. grief, regret (desire for something lost)

   Synonyms: maeror, maestitia, trīstitia, trīstitūdō, tristitās, cūra, aegritūdō, lūctus

   Antonym: lascīvia

3. need, necessity

   Synonyms: egestās, pēnūria, paupertās, necessitās, inopia, indigentia, ūsus, opus

   Antonyms: dīvitiae, opulentia

4. (in the plural) pleasures, desires

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	dēsīderium	dēsīderia
Genitive	dēsīderiī dēsīderī1	dēsīderiōrum
Dative	dēsīderiō	dēsīderiīs
Accusative	dēsīderium	dēsīderia
Ablative	dēsīderiō	dēsīderiīs
Vocative	dēsīderium	dēsīderia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Related terms

• dēsīderābilis
• dēsīderātiō

Descendants

• Italian: desiderio, desidero, disiderio, disidero (archaic)
• → Albanian: dëshirë
• ⇒ Latin: Desiderius (given name)
  • French: Didier, Dizier, Disdier, Désiré
  • Italian: Desidero
    • ⇒ Italian: Disdero (surname)
  • Norman: Désiré
  • ⇒ Latin: Desideria (feminine)
    • French: Désirée
      • English: Désirée, Desiree, Desirée
      • German: Désirée, Desirée
      • Swedish: Desirée, Desiré

References

• “desiderium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “desiderium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• desiderium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• desiderium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to long for a thing, yearn for it: desiderio alicuius rei teneri, affici (more strongly flagrare, incensum esse)
    
  • to be consumed with longing: desiderio exardescere