My derring-do allows me to dance the rigadoon around you but by the time I'm through I lose my desideratum. -- Fiona Apple
n. Something that is wished for, or considered desirable.
My derring-do allows me to dance the rigadoon around you but by the time I’m through I lose my desideratum.
Fiona Apple, To Your Love (1999)
A presumption of equality may be contrary to present fact, and yet not contrary to a desideratum. We are not as a fact all equally fit to live, equally responsible, or equally deserving of the protection of the law: but it will hardly be doubted that it would be desirable if we were.
William Ernest Hocking, Present Status of the Philosophy of Law and of Rights (1926)
Etymology
From Latin, desidaratus, same origin as the word “desire”.
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