different between zeal vs desire

English

Etymology

From Middle English zele, from Old French zel, from Late Latin z?lus, from Ancient Greek ????? (zêlos, “zeal, jealousy”), from Proto-Indo-European *yeh?- (“to search”). Related to jealous.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /zi?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /zil/
• Rhymes: -i?l

Noun

zeal (countable and uncountable, plural zeals)

1. The fervour or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.

   Synonyms: ardour, eagerness, enthusiasm, intensity, passion

   Antonym: apathy

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Romans 10.2,^[1]

     […] I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

   • 1687, John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, London: Jacob Tonson, Part 3, p. 96,^[2]

     Zeal, the blind conductor of the will

   • 1779, David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Part 12, pp. 143-144,^[3]

     […] the highest zeal in religion and the deepest hypocrisy, so far from being inconsistent, are often or commonly united in the same individual character.

   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, London: John Murray, Volume 1, Chapter 14, p. 250,^[4]

     [He] would begin admiring her drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge as seemed terribly like a would-be lover,

   • 1962, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 15, p. 248,^[5]

     The stockman’s zeal for eliminating the coyote has resulted in plagues of field mice, which the coyote formerly controlled.

2. (obsolete) A person who exhibits such fervour or tireless devotion.

   Synonym: zealot

   • 1614, Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, London: Robert Allot, Act V, Scene 5, p. 85,^[6]

     […] like a malicious purblinde zeale as thou art!

   • 1642, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, London: Andrew Crooke, p. 5,^[7]

     […] there are questionlesse both in Greeke, Roman and Africa Churches, solemnities, and ceremonies, whereof the wiser zeales doe make a Christian use, and stand condemned by us;

3. The collective noun for a group of zebras.

   Synonyms: dazzle, herd

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Elza, laze, zale

English

Etymology

From Middle English desire (noun) and desiren (verb), from Old French desirer, desirrer, from Latin d?s?der? (“to long for, desire, feel the want of, miss, regret”), apparently from de- + sidus (in the phrase de sidere, "from the stars") in connection with astrological hopes. Compare consider. Compare also desiderate.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: d?-z?r?, d?-z???r, IPA^(key): /d??za??/
• (General American) enPR: d?-z?r?, d?-z???r, d?-z?r?, d?-z???r, IPA^(key): /d??za??/, /d??za??/, /di?za??/, /di?za??/
• Rhymes: -a??(?)
• Hyphenation: de?sire

Verb

desire (third-person singular simple present desires, present participle desiring, simple past and past participle desired)

1. To want; to wish for earnestly.
2. To put a request to (someone); to entreat.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts XIII:

     And when they founde no cause of deeth in hym, yet desired they Pilate to kyll him.
3. To want emotionally or sexually.

4. To express a wish for; to entreat; to request.
5. To require; to demand; to claim.
   • c. 1580, Edmund Spenser, The Teares of the Muses

     A doleful case desires a doleful song.

6. To miss; to regret.
   • 1673, Jeremy Taylor, Heniaytos: A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year […]

     She shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies.

Related terms

Translations

Noun

desire (usually uncountable, plural desires)

1. (countable) Someone or something wished for.

2. (uncountable) Strong attraction, particularly romantic or sexual.

3. (uncountable) The feeling of desiring; an eager longing for something.

4. (uncountable) Motivation. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Synonyms

• (one or thing wished for): wanna, want-to; See also Thesaurus:desire
• (motivation): wanna, want-to

Translations

See also

• velleity

Related terms

• desirable
• desiring-production
• desirous

Further reading

• desire in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• desire in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• desier, eiders, eresid, redies, reside

Italian

Alternative forms

• desiro
• disire, disiro

Etymology

From Old Occitan dezire.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de?zi.re/
• Rhymes: -ire
• Hyphenation: de?sì?re

Noun

desire m (plural desiri)

1. (poetic, archaic) desire

   Synonym: desiderio

Related terms

• desio
• desirare

References

• desire in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Middle English

Noun

desire

1. desire

Descendants

• English: desire