desideratum

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The Word of the Day for March 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."