Word of the Day

Monday December 28, 2009

desideratum [dih-sid-uh-RAY-tum; -RAH-]

noun

Something desired as a necessity.

"Heretofore public enlightenment may have been only a manifest desideratum, today it constitutes an imperative necessity. The First Amendment, says Justice Black, 'reflects the faith that a good society is not static but advancing, and that the fullest possible interchange of ideas and beliefs is essential to the attainment of this goal.' "

"The real threat to civil liberties", Philadelphia Daily News, Dec 21, 2009
She is like the Desiderata in human form - issuing a litany of imperatives and exhortations to be fabulous, conscious, passionate and compassionate. A professional hopemonger, her poems have titles such as Phenomenal Woman, Still I Rise and Weekend Glory. In the introduction to her latest book, she commands: "Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. Do not complain. . . Never whine. . . Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity."

Gary Younge, "Weekend: 'I'm fine as wine in the summertime': She's 81 and growing frail, but revered author and poet Maya Angelou has lost none of her legendary wisdom and humour", The Guardian, Nov 14, 2009
With bracelets, bonbons, and other gewgaws for your interesting friends, I must say your enjoyment of this prospective Twenty-fifth of December is somewhat reduced. When a man has skated over the frozen surface of society a little matter of one-and-thirty years, it is just reasonable to hope he has reached that desideratum known as years of discretion.

H. S. Armstrong Trifles for the Christmas Holidays (1869)

Origin of the Word

Desideratum (plural desiderata), approximately 1650s, derives from Latin "something for which desire is felt," from past participle of desiderare "to long for." ?