Etymology From Latin, from the participle stem of the verb dēsīderāre (“to desire”). The verb is a doublet of desire.
1
To miss; to feel the absence of; to long for.
Between our human nature and the nature they desiderate there is a deep and fordless river, over which they can throw no bridge, and all their talk supposes that we shall be able to fly or wade across it […]1879, William Hurrell Mallock, Is Life Worth Living?:
it put him in thought of that missing link of creation’s chain desiderated by the late ingenious Mr Darwin.1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
desiderate
adj
Etymology From Latin, from the participle stem of the verb dēsīderāre (“to desire”). The verb is a doublet of desire.
1
desired, wished or longed for
O Friend of God, know then that London is the desiderate town even of all Earth's cities.1916, Lord Dunsany, “A Tale of London”, in Tales of Wonder: