want

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

English [edit]

Wikipedia has articles on:

Wikipedia

Alternative forms [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Middle English wanten (“to lack”), from Old Norse vanta (“to lack”), from Proto-Germanic *wanatōną (“to be wanting, lack”), from *wanô (“lack, deficiency”), from Proto-Indo-European *(e)wAn-, *wān- (“empty”). Cognate with Middle High German wan (“not full, empty”), Middle Dutch wan (“empty, poor”), Old English wana (“want, lack, absence, deficiency”), Latin vanus (“empty”). See wan.

Verb [edit]

want (third-person singular simple present wants, present participle wanting, simple past and past participle wanted)

  1. (transitive) To wish for or to desire (something). [from 18th c.]
    What do you want to eat?
    I want you to leave.
    I never wanted to go back to live with my mother.
    I want to be an astronaut when I'm older
    I don't want him to marry Gloria, I want him to marry me!
    What do you want from me?
    Do you want anything from the shops?
  2. (intransitive, now dated) To be lacking, not to exist. [from 13th c.]
    There was something wanting in the play.
  3. (transitive) To lack, not to have (something). [from 13th c.]
    • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.3.7:
      he that hath skill to be a pilot wants a ship; and he that could govern a commonwealth [...] wants means to exercise his worth, hath not a poor office to manage.
    • James Merrick
      Not what we wish, but what we want, / Oh, let thy grace supply!
  4. (transitive, colloquially with verbal noun as object) To be in need of; to require (something). [from 15th c.]
    That chair wants fixing.
    • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 2
      The mowing-machine always wanted oiling. Barnet turned it under Jacob's window, and it creaked—creaked, and rattled across the lawn and creaked again.

Usage notes [edit]

Synonyms [edit]

Derived terms [edit]

Terms derived from want (verb)

Translations [edit]

desire
lack — see lack

Noun [edit]

Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia want (countable and uncountable; plural wants)

  1. (countable) A desire, wish, longing.
  2. (countable, often followed by of) Lack, absence.
    • circa 1591, William Shakespeare, King Henry VI Part 2, act 4, sc. 8:
      [H]eavens and honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.
    • For Want of a Nail:
      For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
      For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
      For want of a horse the rider was lost.
      For want of a rider the battle was lost.
      For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
      And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
  3. (uncountable) Poverty.

Derived terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

desire, wish, longing
lack (of)
poverty

References [edit]

  1. ^ Dictionary.com

Statistics [edit]

Anagrams [edit]

Dutch [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From Middle Dutch want, from Old Dutch wanda, from Proto-Germanic *hwandē.

Conjunction [edit]

want

  1. for, because
    Hij komt niet, want hij is ziek. — He is not coming, because he is sick. (Note: The order is SVO after want.)
Synonyms [edit]
See also [edit]

Etymology 2 [edit]

From Middle Dutch want, from Old Dutch *want, from Proto-Germanic *wantuz.

Noun [edit]

want f (plural wanten, diminutive wantje)

  1. mitten

Etymology 3 [edit]

From Middle Dutch want, gewant, from Old Dutch *giwant, from Proto-Germanic *gawandą, from the root of winden.

Noun [edit]

want n (plural wanten, diminutive wantje)

  1. shroud, sideways support for a mast.

Etymology 4 [edit]

Verb [edit]

want

  1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of wannen
  2. plural imperative of wannen

Old High German [edit]

Noun [edit]

want f

  1. wall

Tocharian A [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Proto-Tocharian *w'entë, from Post-PIE *h₂weh₁ntos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁nts, from *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”) (cf. English wind, Latin ventus). Compare Tocharian B yente.

Noun [edit]

want

  1. wind
Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=want&oldid=20542774"