desire is a conscious longing for something a person expects will bring satisfaction or enjoyment, and, as a verb, the act of longing or hoping for it.
As a noun, desire names both the feeling and its object: a craving or yearning, a strongly felt wish, and, by the mid-fourteenth century, "that which is longed for." One sense narrows to sexual appetite. As a verb it ranges from wanting something earnestly to the formal register of request, as in "the committee desires your presence."
English took the word around 1200 from Old French desirer, from Latin desiderare, "to long for, wish for; demand, expect." A popular derivation reads it as de sidere, "from the stars," as if desire once meant awaiting what the stars would bring. Etymologists dispute that link, and some trace the word instead to a root meaning "to stretch" or "survey on all sides."
Desire sits among several near-neighbors. Want begins in lack and can be impersonal; wish can be idle or aimed at the impossible; craving is urgent and often bodily. Desire implies strong feeling directed at a definite object, which is why contemplative traditions treat it as the root of clinging, a theme developed in 📝Detachment: Nothing Owing You. The compound 📝desire path borrows the word's sense of preference to name the trail worn where people actually walk.
"Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. So, when I'm unhappy about something, I look for what is the underlying desire that I have that's not being fulfilled. It's ok to have desires [...] but don't have too many. Pick your one overwhelming desire, and it's ok to suffer over that one, but all of the others you want to let go so you can be calm, and peaceful, and relaxed." ~ 📝Naval Ravikant[source]
In 📝making space I set a desire of "looking for" someone or something against the patient practice of making space. 📝The Lazy Genie taught me to word a desire precisely, because the Universe grants exactly what you ask for.