Etymologically
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desiderare

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Pronunciation

  • /de.zi.deˈra.re/, /de.si.deˈra.re/[1]

Forms

desiderare (first-person singular present desìdero, first-person singular past historic desiderài, past participle desideràto, auxiliary avére)[1] The older form is Old Italian disiderare, used by Dante; the old northern forms include Old Italian desidrare, Old Italian desedrar and Old Italian desirar.[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēsīderō (“to long for; to miss, feel the lack of”), a learned word.[6][7][3][1] The verb belongs with sīdus (“star, constellation”).[6][8][9] DELI, GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and GDLI give the traditional explanation from augury: the verb first meant to stop watching the stars, or to note that the stars needed for the auspices were missing, and so came to mean “to feel the lack of, long for”.[6][8][10][5] Nocentini and Devoto see it as formed after cōnsīderō (“to examine”), with the prefix dē- in place of con-: “to stop seeing”, then “to notice an absence”, “to miss”.[7][11] De Vaan reports a newer view, from hunters' language: the noun for “star” would first have meant “mark, target”, the compound with con- “to aim”, and the one with dē- “to miss the mark”.[9]

The Latin verb lives on as Romanian deșidera, Old French desirer (about 1050) and Old Occitan dezirar, but not in Spanish, Portuguese or southern Italian, where the forms are learned.[3][12][4] The variant desirare and the noun Old Italian desire (“desire”) are borrowings from Old Occitan.[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur of the last quarter of the 12th century, for wishing for something and striving to obtain it.[2] DELI dates the word to Guido Faba, before 1243, and the LEI has Bolognese desidrare in Faba's Formule of 1248.[6][8][3]

Semantic evolution

The Old Italian senses already include longing for a person or being in love, aspiring to possessions, and, of a plant, needing certain conditions to thrive.[2] The LEI groups the Latin and Italian uses into “to long for”, “to require, need” and “to miss, find lacking”.[3]

Derivatives followed early: desiderio (before 1294, Guittone), desideroso (13th century) and desiderabile (1304–1308, Dante).[6][7] Desiderata “things wished for” was taken in 1843 from French or English, and pio desiderio “wishful thinking” is recorded in 1869.[6] In modern Italian desiderare is also a polite word for wanting in shops and offices, and lasciare a desiderare means to fall short of expectations.[8][13][10]

Timeline

  • Last quarter of the 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur have the first record.[2]
  • Before 1243 – Guido Faba uses the verb.[6][8]
  • 1248 – Bolognese desidrare appears in Faba's Formule.[3]
  • Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo has desiderio.[6]
  • 1304–1308 – Dante has desiderabile.[6]
  • 1843 – Desiderata is recorded.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To wish for, desire strongly: Desideravo da anni una casa in campagna. With che and the subjunctive or with the infinitive (also with di).[8][10][13][1]
  2. To desire a person sexually.[8][2]
  3. To express a wish or order politely: Desidero che la riunione cominci in orario.[8][10]
  4. To feel the need of, miss: Dopo tanto rumore desideravo un po' di silenzio.[8][10][13]
  5. In polite formulas, to want, to ask for: Che cosa desiderano i signori da bere? To ask for someone: La desiderano alla reception.[8][13]
  6. Lasciare a desiderare: to leave something to be desired.[8][10] Farsi desiderare: to keep people waiting, to be rarely seen.[8][10]

Word family

  • desiderio
  • desiderabile
  • desideroso
  • desiderata
  • desiderativo
  • indesiderabile

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 1431
  4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1260
  5. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse