Etymology of the English word desperate
the English word
desperatederived from the Latin word
desperatus (desperate, hopeless; despairing)
derived from the Latin word
desperare (despair; have no, give up hope)
using the Late Latin prefix
de-derived from the Latin word
de (away; down)
derived from the Latin word
sperare (hope for; trust; look forward to)
derived from the Proto-Indo-European root
*spe-derived from the Proto-Indo-European root
*spē-derived from the Latin word
spes (hope, anticipation, expectation; object, embodiment of hope)
Date
The earliest known usage of desperate in English dates from the 15th century.
Cognates
Dutch
desperaat, French
désespéré, German
desperat, Norwegian
desperat, Swedish
desperatUsage
Word found in Modern English
