wantyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[want 词源字典]
want: [12] Etymologically, to want something is to ‘lack’ it (a sense still intact in the noun want); ‘wishing to have’ is a secondary extension of this. The word was borrowed from Old Norse vanta ‘be lacking’. This in turn was descended from a prehistoric Germanic *wanatōn, which was formed from the base *wan- ‘lacking’ (source also of English wane).
=> wane[want etymology, want origin, 英语词源]
want (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1200, "to be lacking," from Old Norse vanta "to lack, want," earlier *wanaton, from Proto-Germanic *wanen, from PIE *we-no-, from root *eue- "to leave, abandon, give out" (see vain). The meaning "desire, wish for, feel the need of" is recorded by 1706.
want (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1200, "deficiency, insufficiency, shortage," from want (v.) and from Old Norse vant, neuter of vanr "wanting, deficient;" related to Old English wanian "to diminish" (see wane). Meaning "state of destitution, poverty" is recorded from early 14c. Meaning "thing desired, that which is lacking but needed" is from 1560s. Phrase for want of is recorded from c. 1400. Newspaper want ad is recorded from 1897. Middle English had wantsum (c. 1200) "in want, deprived of," literally "want-some."