Translation
a good wish; greetings, best wishes
Word origin
Built inside Esperanto from bona ('good') and deziro ('a wish'), the noun of deziri, which came from French desirer and behind it Latin desiderare. German does the same job with Glückwunsch.
- Origin
- Esperanto compound
- Root
- bona + deziro
- English cognates
- desire, desideratum
Examples
.
Please accept my best wishes for the new year.
.
The letter ended with good wishes to the whole family.
.
Her friends sent many good wishes.
Two roots you already have, welded into the word you need at the end of every
letter. Bona plus deziro, the noun from
deziri, gives a good wish. Main root last as always,
so the thing is a kind of wish and bon- says which kind. English has no single
word for it and has to say best wishes or good wishes; German gets there in
one with Glückwunsch, and Esperanto sits with German.
In practice it is nearly always plural. You send , not a single
, in the same way English sends regards rather than a regard. The
standard letter endings are koraj and korajn , and the verb that goes with it is or simply
them. The related verb bondeziri also exists and takes the person in
the dative sense with : bondeziras .
You will meet it first at a birthday. The
festivals article has the awkward
truth that there is no standard Esperanto Happy Birthday song, and that among the
several texts clubs sing to the borrowed tune, one is simply .
So the word turns up as an entire song lyric before it turns up as vocabulary,
which is a good reason to know it.
Its opposite exists and is worth knowing. o is barely used, but
, to curse, is the word for the real opposite act, and bondeziri sits
against it neatly. There is also bonvolo, goodwill, which is a disposition
rather than a thing you send.
Where this fits
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bondeziro: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "bondeziro" (a good wish; greetings, best wishes): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 51.