desperatio

Forms

dēspērātiō f (genitive dēspērātiōnis); third declension^[1] Manuscripts often spell it disperātiō.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēspērō + -tiō, a noun of action from the verb “to give up hope”.^[3][1][2] The verb is formed from dē- and spērō (“to hope”), which de Vaan derives from spēs (“hope”); that noun goes back to Proto-Italic *spēs and Proto-Indo-European *spéh₁-s (“prosperity”), cognate with Sanskrit स्फिर (sphirá, “fat”) and Lithuanian spėti (“to be in time”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first author is Cicero,^[5] who defines it in the Tusculan Disputations as distress without any expectation of better things.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

It is the giving up of hope, despair, often with a genitive of what is despaired of, as Cicero's despair of the state and of recovering what was lost.^[3][6] The TLL notes that it is common in prose from Cicero on but almost absent from poetry.^[2] Livy uses it of a desperate state of health, when a doctor sent word at the first signs that the patient was beyond hope,^[3] and Apuleius of desperate, reckless conduct.^[3][1]

Isidore of Seville sets it against hope.^[2] In British Medieval Latin it is despair, including despair of salvation in theology.^[7] English desperation comes from it, first in the late 14th century of hopelessness, especially of God's mercy.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero defines it as distress without hope.^[6][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a patient's hopeless condition.^[3][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of desperate conduct.^[3][5]
• late 14th century – Borrowed into English as desperation.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The abandonment of hope, despair, hopelessness.^[3][6][1][9]
2. With a genitive, despair of something.^[3][6]
3. A desperate state of health.^[3][10]
4. Desperate or reckless action, foolhardiness.^[3][1]

Related words

• spēs
• spērō
• English despair

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn