Meaning & use
desiderium
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountableliteraryrare
A deep, aching longing for someone or something that is gone or out of reach.
Grammar: Usually used with for: a desiderium for the past.
Patterns
- a desiderium for something
- feel desiderium
Old photographs filled him with a quiet desiderium for his childhood village.
The poet writes of a desiderium that no new love could ease.
Her letters carried a desiderium for the friend who had moved abroad.
Word forms
| plural | desideria |
|---|
Common combinations
- desiderium for the past
- He felt a desiderium for the past whenever he heard that song.
- a pang of desiderium
- A pang of desiderium came over her at the old station.
- poignant desiderium
- The novel is full of poignant desiderium.
- feel desiderium
- Exiles often feel desiderium for their homeland.
Synonyms and how they differ
- yearning
- Yearning is the common word and can point toward the future as well, whereas desiderium is mostly about something lost.
- nostalgia
- Nostalgia looks back fondly at the past, but desiderium has a sharper edge of missing a specific person or thing.
- longing
- Longing is the everyday word, without the literary flavor and loss implied by desiderium.
- wistfulness
- Wistfulness is a gentle, thoughtful sadness and is milder than the ache in desiderium.
Opposites
Word family
- desire noun
- a strong wish for something
- desiderate verb
- to wish for something that is missing (rare)
- desideratum noun
- something wanted or needed
Commonly confused: desiderium or desideratum?
desiderium vs desideratum
A desideratum is something that is wanted or needed, while desiderium is the feeling of longing.
Practice
Which sentence best shows desiderium?
Choose one answer.
Desiderium is an aching longing for something lost, as in the lost family home. The other sentences describe hunger, an argument and awareness.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “desiderium”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.