different between need vs destitution

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: n?d, IPA^(key): /ni?d/, [n?i?d]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /nid/
• Homophones: knead, kneed
• Rhymes: -i?d

Etymology 1

From Middle English need, nede, a merger of two terms:

• Old English n?ed (West Saxon), n?d (Mercian), n?ad (“necessity, compulsion, want”), from Proto-Germanic *naudiz
• Old English n?od (“desire, longing”), from Proto-Germanic *neudaz (“wish, urge, desire, longing”), from Proto-Indo-European *new- (“to incline, tend, move, push, nod, wave”)

Noun

need (countable and uncountable, plural needs)

1. (countable and uncountable) A requirement for something; something needed.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

     Be governed by your needs, not by your fancy.
2. Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often used with “need”: urgent, dire, desperate, strong, unmet, bad, basic, critical, essential, big, terrible, modest, elementary, daily, everyday, special, educational, environmental, human, personal, financial, emotional, medical, nutritional, spiritual, public, developmental, organizational, legal, fundamental, audio-visual, psychological, corporate, societal, psychosocial, functional, additional, caloric, private, monetary, physiological, mental.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• in need

Etymology 2

From Middle English neden, from Old English n?odian.

Verb

need (third-person singular simple present needs, present participle needing, simple past and past participle needed)

1. (transitive) To have an absolute requirement for.
2. (transitive) To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.
3. (modal verb) To be obliged or required (to do something).

4. (intransitive) To be required; to be necessary.

   • When we have done it, we have done or duty, and all that is in our power, and indeed all that needs.
5. (obsolete, transitive) To be necessary (to someone).

Usage notes

• The verb need is construed in a few different ways:
  • With a direct object, as in “I need your help.”
  • With a to-infinitive, as in “I need to go.” Here, the subject of need serves implicitly as the subject of the infinitive.
  • With a clause of the form “for [object] to [verb phrase]”, or simply “[object] to [verb phrase]” as in “I need for this to happen” or “I need this to happen.” In both variants, the object serves as the subject of the infinitive.
  • As a modal verb, with a bare infinitive; in negative polarity contexts, such as questions (“Need I say more?” “Need you have paid so much?”), with negative expressions such as not (“It need not happen today”; “No one need ever know”), and with similar constructions (“There need only be one”; “it need be signed only by the president”; “I need hardly explain it”). Need in this use does not have inflected forms, aside from the contraction needn’t.
  • With a gerund-participle, as in “The car needs washing”, or (in certain dialects) with a past participle, as in “The car needs washed”^[1] (both meaning roughly “The car needs to be washed”).
  • With a direct object and a predicative complement, as in “We need everyone here on time” (meaning roughly “We need everyone to be here on time”) or “I need it gone” (meaning roughly “I need it to be gone”).
  • In certain dialects, and colloquially in certain others, with an unmarked reflexive pronoun, as in “I need me a car.”
• A sentence such as “I need you to sit down” or “you need to sit down” is politer than the bare command “sit down”, but less polite than “please sit down”. It is considered somewhat condescending and infantilizing, hence dubbed by some “the kindergarten imperative”, but is quite common in American usage.
• In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb need had the form needest, and had neededst for its past tense.
• Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form needeth was used.

Synonyms

• (desire): desire, wish for, would like, want, will (archaic)
• (lack): be without, lack
• (require): be in need of, require

Derived terms

• a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle
• citation needed
• needed, unneeded
• need-to-know basis

Translations

References

Further reading

• need at OneLook Dictionary Search
• need in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• need in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Dene, Dené, Eden, Ende, deen, dene, eden, ende

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian n?d, n?d, from Proto-Germanic *naudiz.

Noun

need c (plural neden)

1. need

Derived terms

• needgefal
• needsaak

Further reading

• “need”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Etymology

From Old French destitution, from Latin d?stit?ti? (“abandoning”), from d?stitu?.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /d?st??tu???n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d?st??tju???n/, /d?st??t?u???n/

Noun

destitution (countable and uncountable, plural destitutions)

1. (obsolete) The action of deserting or abandoning.
2. (now rare) Discharge from office; dismissal.
3. The condition of lacking something.
   • 1906, ‘Mark Twain’, in The Bible According to Mark Twain, 1996, p. 330:

     He requires of his fellow man obedience to a very creditable code of morals, but he observes without shame or disapproval his God's utter destitution of morals.

4. An extreme state of poverty, in which a person is almost completely lacking in resources or means of support.
   • 2009, Rahila Gupta, The Guardian, 4 Aug 2009:

     Destitution forces many asylum seekers to end up working for extremely low wages in catering, cleaning and construction, for example, without any protection against unscrupulous employers.

Related terms

• destitute

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin d?stit?ti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?s.ti.ty.sj??/

Noun

destitution f (plural destitutions)

1. discharge, dismissal
2. deposition (of a politician etc.)

Further reading

• “destitution” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).