DESIRE  , in popular usage, a

term for a wishing or longing for something which one has not got . For its technical use see PSYCHOLOGY . The word is derived through the French from Lat. desiderare, to long or wish for, to miss . The substantive desiderium has the special meaning of desire for something one has once possessed but lost, hence regret or grief . The usual explanation of the word is to connect it with sidus, star, as in considerare, to examine the stars with attention, hence, to look closely at . If this is so, the history of the transition in meaning is unknown . J . B . Greenough (Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, i . 96) has suggested that the word is a military slang term . According to this theory desiderare meant originally to miss a soldier from the ranks at roll-call, the root being that seen in sedere, to sit, seder, seat, place, &c .