despair (English)

Where does "despair" come from?

The English noun despair traces its roots back through Middle English 'dispeir'[1] and Anglo-Norman 'despeir'[1], alongside Old French 'desperer'[1]. These forms ultimately derive from the Latin verb 'dēspērō, dēspērāre'[1], which is built from the prefix 'dē-' meaning away or off combined with 'spērō' meaning to hope[2]. The Latin noun 'spēs' meaning hope descends from Proto-Italic '*spēs' and further back to the Proto-Indo-European root '*speh₁-' meaning to succeed or prosper[4][5][6].

Open questions

• The Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Italic intermediate forms are linguistic reconstructions based on comparative evidence. [4] [5] [6]

Full etymology tree

• despair (English), 'Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency.'
  • inherited dispeir (Middle English)
    • borrowed despeir (Anglo-Norman)
      • inherited desperer (Old French)
        • prefix des- (Old French), 'de-; dis-'
        • derived esperer (Old French), 'to hope'
          • inherited desperare (Latin), 'inflection of dēspērō:'
            • prefix de- (Latin), 'of; from'
            • derived spero (Latin), 'to hope, expect'
              • derived *spēsō (Latin)
                • derived spes (Latin), 'hope (belief or expectation that something wished for can or will happen)'
                  • inherited *spēs (Proto-Italic), 'hope'
                    • inherited *spéh₁s (Proto-Indo-European), 'prosperity, success'
                      • derived *speh₁- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to succeed, to prosper'
                      • suffix *-s (Proto-Indo-European), 'Derives feminine mobile-accented root nouns from roots.'
                • suffix -o (Latin), 'Used to form masculine nouns with various meanings:'
              • inherited spes (Latin), 'hope (belief or expectation that something wished for can or will happen)'
                • inherited *spēs (Proto-Italic), 'hope'
                  • inherited *spéh₁s (Proto-Indo-European), 'prosperity, success'
                    • derived *speh₁- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to succeed, to prosper'
                    • suffix *-s (Proto-Indo-European), 'Derives feminine mobile-accented root nouns from roots.'

Ancestors

• *speh₁- (Proto-Indo-European)
• despero (Latin)

Descendants and derived words

• climate despair (English)
• counsel of despair (English)
• death of despair (English)
• despairful (English)
• disease of despair (English)
• pit of despair (English)
• self-despair (English)

Sources

1. despair (English) - Wiktionary
2. despero (Latin) - Wiktionary
3. spero (Latin) - Wiktionary
4. spes (Latin) - Wiktionary
5. spēs (Proto-Italic) - Wiktionary
6. spéh₁s (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary

Updated August 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris