Skip to content
word of the day

The word for today is…

desideratum (noun) – Something considered necessary or highly desirable.

Source : The Free Dictionary

Etymology : We’d like to introduce you to some close cousins of the common word desire. All trace their roots to the Latin s?der-, or s?dus, which has historically been understood to mean “heavenly body,” but which may also have an older, non-celestial meaning of “mark, target, goal.” Whether etymologically starry or grounded, d?s?der?re, meaning “to long for,” was born when Latin de- was prefixed to s?der-. D?s?der?re begat Anglo-French desirer, which in turn brought forth English desire, desirous, and desirable in the 13th and 14th centuries, with desideration following in the 15th. Then, in the 17th century, English acquired desiderate (“to wish for”) and desideratum (desiderata in the plural), all of which can lay claim to direct ancestry from desiderare.

Latest

Thinking About Race and IQ

Thinking About Race and IQ

We seem destined to continue the equality thesis, the persistent gaps in IQ and other test scores behoove us to acknowledge that our efforts have not worked. In some sense, DEI efforts are an admission of that failure, as they seek to reapportion society’s spoils based on race rather than merit.

Members Public