Word: Desideratum

The Word of the Day for Mar 18 is:
desideratum \dih-sih-duh-RAH-tum\ noun

: something desired as essential

Example sentence:
"The other desideratum is a pitcher with good control — far rarer, even at the major-league level, than one might suppose." (Roger Angell, The New Yorker, March 12, 1984)

Did you know?

We'd like to introduce you to some close cousins of "desire." Although long eclipsed by "desire" and its offspring, the lesser-known cousins are of purer lineage. All trace their roots to the ancient Latin house of "sider-," a house whose origins are nothing if not stellar: "sider-" in Latin means "heavenly body." "Desiderare," meaning "to long for," was born when Latin "de-" was prefixed to "sider-." "Desiderare" was Frenchified as "desirer" in an Anglo-French branch of the family, which brought forth English "desire," "desirous," and "desirable" in the 13th and 14th centuries. But many years later, in the 17th century, English acquired "desideration" (longing), "desiderate" (to wish for), and finally "desideratum," all of which can lay claim to a pure Latin ancestry from "desiderare."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

My sentence:
The desideratum of the blog writer was to be free of the shackles of the ever-increasing censorship.

Comments

[Rose]

What is desideratum in the academic field is a charismatic scholar who's familiar with the lower/underprivileged class, who's persevered through poverty of the heart, mind and soul, and who is a survivor in every sense of the word.

[Joe]

I like your sentence!