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hope

Etymology and origin of the English word hope

History Permalink
Confidence
Unknown
Formation
Inherited
First attested
971 (Old English hopian)
Inherited from
Old English hopian via Middle English

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /həʊp/, US /hoʊp/[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English hopen, inherited from Old English hopian (“to trust, look forward, hope”),[2][3][4] a word of unknown origin.[2][3][5][6] It belonged first to the Low German area:[6] its cognates are Old Frisian hopia, Middle Low German hopen, Middle Dutch hopen and Dutch hopen, and Middle High German hoffen was borrowed from Low German.[2][6][3] Merriam-Webster suggests a connection with hop.[7] The noun is late Old English hopa, also tōhopa, formed in the same way,[6][5][3] and spread to High German and Scandinavian, as Swedish hopp.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English hopian (971) meant to have the theological virtue of hope, to trust in God's word and hope for salvation, and also more generally to trust or assume confidently.[3][2] The noun hopa (about 1000) was confidence in the future, especially with God as its basis.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

From the early 13th century the verb also meant “to wish for, desire”,[2] and the noun “expectation of something desired” from about 1200.[2] From the 14th to the 16th century hope could also mean simply “to expect”, without any desire.[8] The noun came to mean “the thing hoped for” and “the grounds for hope” in the late 14th century,[2] and Hope has been personified since about 1300.[2] To hope against hope (1610s) echoes Romans 4:18, which the Wycliffite Bible (about 1384) renders “Abraham agens hope bileuede”.[2] Hope springs eternal comes from Pope's Essay on Man (1732).[9] Hopeful appears probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle, and hopeless in 1566.[3]

Timeline

  • 971 – Old English hopian.[3]
  • c. 1000 – noun hopa.[3]
  • before 1200 – hopeful (Ancrene Riwle).[3]
  • early 13th century – to wish for.[2]
  • c. 1300 – Hope personified.[2]
  • 1566 – hopeless.[3]
  • 1610s – hope against hope.[2]
  • 1732 – hope springs eternal (Pope).[9]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To wish for something and expect that it may happen.
  2. To have confidence; to trust.

Noun

  1. A wish together with confident expectation that it will be fulfilled.
  2. Something hoped for.
  3. A person or thing that is a source of hope.
  4. (theology) One of the theological virtues, the desire for a future good attainable with God's help.

Word family

  • hoper
  • hopingly
  • hopeful
  • hopeless
  • no-hoper
  • Cape of Good Hope
  • hope chest
  • forlorn hope

Usage notes

In Scotland and the north of England a hope is a small enclosed valley or a hollow among hills, and in Scotland also a small bay or haven, from late Old English hop, of unknown origin.[6][10] The hope of forlorn hope is a separate word, from Dutch hoop “troop”.[11][2]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Hope.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/hope. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

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