Wish

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /wɪʃ/

Definitions

1. A desire or hope for something to happen or be true
2. A feeling of wanting a particular outcome or thing to occur ; a statement conveying hope or goodwill towards someone
3. An aspiration for something to come true or be achieved ; a verbal or written message expressing positive thoughts or hopes

Etymology: Few common English words have a vocabulary as old as "wish" and a Latin cousin as grand as "Venus". The Proto-Indo-European root *wenh₁- meant "to wish, love," and the same ancestor gave Latin "venerari," "to venerate," and the goddess Venus. The shared root is a real genetic link, though the English word itself never picked up the sense of worship. English "wish" comes from Old English "wȳsċan," which passed down from Proto-Germanic "wunskijaną." The verb is cognate with German "wünschen," Dutch "wensen," Swedish "önska," and Icelandic "óska," so the root is shared across the Germanic languages. In Middle English the form appeared as "wisshen" and "wischen" before settling into the modern spelling. Included in the word's wider family is "wonder," which descends from the same ancestral root. The link runs through the sense of desire and longing that both words once shared before wonder drifted toward astonishment.

Synonyms: desire, want, hope, longing, yearning

Antonyms: dislike, aversion, indifference