English question: Isn't "desireful" a word?

[Tenebrae]

Dear native English speakers,

I am currently putting the finishing touches on a story, and I am surprised to see that my Word corrector does not consider "desireful" an actual word. I am a little bit surprised; I heard people say it here and there, and an Internet search has yielded mixed results. Is that a slang word that does not actually belong to the English lexicon? Or an archaic term that is best avoided? Do you say it sometimes?

Thank you for your help!

 

[Nedstacey2]

Apparently desireful was a legitimate English word at one time; the Oxford English Dictionary has citations, but the last one is from 1892 and the dictionary labels it as "Now rare," and as a not particularly young native speaker of American English my first inclination would have been to call it nonexistent.

Are you trying to translate either of the French adjectives envieux/envieuse or désireux/désireuse? I know that these are roughly equivalent to English envious and desirous, respectively, but I was thinking especially the root of the former is often used in French as we use the verb desire in English: avoir envie de 'to desire to' or 'to want to'.

It's interesting also that apparently French doesn't have a productive adjective-creating suffix that corresponds to the English -ful. That is, there are ton of -ful words in English, e.g., hopeful, joyful, hateful and vengeful, but these need to be rendered in diverse ways in French.

 

[Tenebrae]

Apparently desireful was a legitimate English word at one time; the Oxford English Dictionary has citations, but the last one is from 1892 and the dictionary labels it as "Now rare," and as a not particularly young native speaker of American English my first inclination would have been to call it nonexistent.

Are you trying to translate either of the French adjectives envieux/envieuse or désireux/désireuse? I know that these are roughly equivalent to English envious and desirous, respectively, but I was thinking especially the root of the former is often used in French as we use the verb desire in English: avoir envie de 'to desire to' or 'to want to'.

It's interesting also that apparently French doesn't have a productive adjective-creating suffix that corresponds to the English -ful. That is, there are ton of -ful words in English, e.g., hopeful, joyful, hateful and vengeful, but these need to be rendered in diverse ways in French.

Thank you so much, this is really helpful! The only English speakers I have here in Beijing are my colleagues and I did not imagine popping into their office to ask them that question 😛 I love the TMF~

Well, when I write in English I do not really form the sentence in French only to translate it; I write it in English directly. Although sometimes I need a dictionary for the odd word that does not come out immediately. But for your information, I guess in the context I was writing, "desireful" would translate as "débordant(e) de désir".

Yes English is much more flexible than French. I suspect that it may be the resultant of its older forms' agglutinative characteristics, which somehow have endured under this aspect. Like you said, the suffix -ful is quite ubiquitous; "desireful" does not sound weirder to me than "careful" or "beautiful", but in light of your findings I shall use another term.

Thank you again!

 

[chicago]

Desireful, to me, sounds pretty awkward. I think desirable sounds better

 

[duderino84]

desiring is probably closer. ...desireful sounds like it's from some medieval tense. ..

 

[Tenebrae]

Thank you both What can I say, I am very medieval~

 

[Bohemianne]

Thank you both What can I say, I am very medieval~

Don't worry... I'm Neanderthal or "wors-er". I could fabricate words and own it. It's like trekking the minefields only to re-grow the limbs back. 😀

 

[Tenebrae]

Don't worry... I'm Neanderthal or "wors-er". I could fabricate words and own it. It's like trekking the minefields only to re-grow the limbs back. 😀

Haha, excellent And you're sweet~

I love your analogy! Actually I think you should trademark it before someone else does 😉

 

[Nedstacey2]

The only English speakers I have here in Beijing are my colleagues

Well, nice to see that the best-laid plans of the PRC government have been such a resounding success...

And naturally the video got me daydreaming about Diane Sawyer's gorgeous high arches again.