Word of the Day: YEARNING

A deep longing or desire

yearning (noun) - a feeling of deep or melancholy longing or need; a strong wish or desire [yur-ning]

• yearn means to wish or long for strongly or wistfully

• yearnful means desirous or mournful

BREAKDOWN: The feeling of yearning may have been a part of the human condition for time immemorial but the word itself goes back only as far as the 1500s. The Middle English word yerning can be traced through Old English to Proto-Germanic gernjan all the way back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to like or want. Through this common ancestor root, yearning is connected to words like charisma and exhort.

“The best antidote I have found is to yearn for something. As long as you yearn, you can't congeal: There is a forward motion to yearning.” —Gail Godwin

[Our Wednesday Wildcards are fascinating and important words that are not derived from classical roots.]