Other forms: desired, desires, desiring
Desire is a strong wish for something. A burning desire, desire for change, desire to please.
It is stronger than want and more considered than craving, and it carries a sexual sense when it stands alone about a person. As a verb it is formal — desired outcome, leaves much to be desired. Note that the Latin may come from a phrase about the stars, meaning to await what they bring.
1noundesireA strong wish for something.
“He had a strong desire to see his home town again before he died.”
2verbwishTo wish for something strongly.
“The hotel offers everything a guest could desire.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
desire is a strong wish.
Latin desiderare may come from de sidere, from the stars, in the sense of awaiting what the stars bring. Consider comes from the same stars.
Latin
dēsīderō — to long for, desire, feel the want of, miss, regret
Old French
desirer
Middle English
desir
English, today
desire
From Middle English desir, desire and desiren, from Old French desirer, desirrer, from Latin dēsīderō (“to long for, desire, feel the want of, miss, regret”), apparently from de- + sidus (in the phrase de sidere, "from the stars") in connection with astrological hopes. Compare consider and desiderate. The verb, along with Old Norse derived want, has mostly replaced native will in modern English.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA