despair
pronunciation
How to pronounce despair in British English:
UK [dɪˈspeə(r)]
How to pronounce despair in American English:
US [dɪˈsper]
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- Noun:
- a state in which everything seems wrong and will turn out badly
- the feeling that everything is wrong and nothing will turn out well
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- Verb:
- abandon hope; give up hope; lose heart
Word Origin
- despair
- despair: [14] Etymologically, despair is literally ‘lack of hope’. The word comes via Old French desperer from Latin dēspērāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē-, denoting reversal, and spērāre, a derivative of the noun spēs ‘hope’. Its past participle, dēspērātus, produced English desperate [15], from which desperado is a 17th-century mock-Spanish coinage.=> desperate
- despair (n.)
- c. 1300, from Anglo-French despeir, Old French despoir, from desperer (see despair (v.)). Replaced native wanhope.
- despair (v.)
- early 14c., from stem of Old French desperer "be dismayed, lose hope, despair," from Latin desperare "to despair, to lose all hope," from de- "without" (see de-) + sperare "to hope," from spes "hope" (see sperate). Related: Despaired; despairing; despairingly.
Example
- 1. Those who would surrender or despair should stand aside .
- 2. It 's always tempting to despair of multilateral institutions .
- 3. Some diplomats seem close to despair .
- 4. Bathsheba was in deep despair .
- 5. This despair is also affecting business confidence .