different between yearning vs wishful

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?j?n??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?j??n??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)n??
• Hyphenation: yearn?ing

Etymology 1

From Middle English yerning, from Old English ?ierning, ?ierninge. Equivalent to the gerund (yearn + -ing). yearn comes from Proto-West Germanic *girnijan, from Proto-Germanic *girnijan?, from *gernaz (“eager, willing”) + *-jan?, from Proto-Indo-European *??er- (“to yearn for”).

Noun

yearning (plural yearnings)

1. A wistful or melancholy longing.

   She had a yearning to see her long-lost sister again.

Related terms

• yearn

Translations

Verb

yearning

1. Present participle and gerund of yearn.

Etymology 2

From earlier yerning, from Middle English yernyng, erning, renning. From Old English rynning and gerunnen, geurnen (“run together, coagulated, curdled”), past participles of gerinnan, geirnan, respectively. Influenced by Middle English yern (“to (cause to) coagulate or curdle”), Old English iernan (“to run, flow”), metathesized forms derived from the same origin. From verbal prefix ge- + rinnan (“to run”). First element is from Proto-West Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Indo-European *?óm (“with, by”); second element is from Proto-Germanic *rinnan?, from Proto-Indo-European *h?r?-néw-ti, from *h?er- (“to move”). Doublet of rennet, run.

Noun

yearning (countable and uncountable, plural yearnings)

1. (Scotland, archaic) rennet (an enzyme to curdle milk in order to make cheese).

Related terms

• yearn
• earn
• rennet

Anagrams

• renaying

English

Etymology

From wish +? -ful.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w??f?l/

Adjective

wishful (comparative more wishful, superlative most wishful)

1. (obsolete) Wished-for; desired, wanted.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.9:

     The cry whereof entring the hollow cave / Eftsoones brought forth the villaine, as they ment, / With hope of her some wishfull boot to have.

2. Expressing a wish or longing for something.
   • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, vol. I, ch. 5:

     When she weighed anchor I went to the waterside and looked at her with a very wishful and aching heart, and followed her with my eyes and tears until she was totally out of sight.

3. Aspiring, or seeking advancement.

Derived terms

• wishful thinking

Translations