Pronounced: REK-toe, noun
Notes: Not what I thought, and very common
Yesterday’s word
The word desideratum is “something desired as essential”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
Background / Comments
Our word is a close cousin of “desire”. Our word came from the Latin word desiderare (to long for), which was created be prepending de- to sider-, related to sidus (star; heavenly body).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 