Respair
Ever been a desperado? Did a well-meaning friend ever ask, “Why don’t you come to your senses?” Try respairing.
The word desperado (a person in despair) comes to English around 1600 from Spanish and earlier from Latin desperatus (given up, despaired of).
In its origins, desperado comes from the Proto-Indo-European root spes (prosperity), Latin spes (hope), and Latin sperare (to hope). The Latin prefix de- (without) + sperare makes desperare (to despair, to lose all hope), a word which came to English in the early 14th century as despair (hopelessness, total loss of hope). The verb ‘to despair’ (to lose hope, to be without hope) came to English in the mid-14th century. By the late 14th century, the word desperation appears. (It may be worth mentioning that the mid-14th century was marked by the Black Death plague).
However, at this time, the word respair was used to mean the return of hope after a period of despair. There seems an element of choice in this word; for example, “After being down in the dumps for a while, I respaired.” Have you ever had the experience of respair or respairing?
If you did, you probably wouldn’t have had a word for it. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the last known use of the word respair was 1425. It is hard to believe that people don’t have a desire for such a useful word.
In the meantime, perhaps the Eagles can help out…
Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses
You’ve been out ridin’ fences for so long now…
Desperado
Oh, you ain’t getting no younger
Your pain and your hunger
They’re driving you home
And freedom, oh, freedom
Well that’s just some people talking
Your prison is walking through this world all alone
Desperado
Why don’t you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you
(Let somebody love you)
You better let someone love you
Before it’s too late.
“Desperado” (excerpts from the 1970’s song by the Eagles). Apologies to readers who were not born at that time! Linda Ronstadt did a classic cover version of the song. Diana Krall’s recent cover is also great.
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://genius.com/Eagles-desperado-lyrics
Johnson. (4 March 2017). Lexical treasures: Why words die (and how to stop a few of them from keeling over). The Economist, p. 69.
The word desperado (a person in despair) comes to English around 1600 from Spanish and earlier from Latin desperatus (given up, despaired of).
In its origins, desperado comes from the Proto-Indo-European root spes (prosperity), Latin spes (hope), and Latin sperare (to hope). The Latin prefix de- (without) + sperare makes desperare (to despair, to lose all hope), a word which came to English in the early 14th century as despair (hopelessness, total loss of hope). The verb ‘to despair’ (to lose hope, to be without hope) came to English in the mid-14th century. By the late 14th century, the word desperation appears. (It may be worth mentioning that the mid-14th century was marked by the Black Death plague).
However, at this time, the word respair was used to mean the return of hope after a period of despair. There seems an element of choice in this word; for example, “After being down in the dumps for a while, I respaired.” Have you ever had the experience of respair or respairing?
If you did, you probably wouldn’t have had a word for it. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the last known use of the word respair was 1425. It is hard to believe that people don’t have a desire for such a useful word.
In the meantime, perhaps the Eagles can help out…
Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses
You’ve been out ridin’ fences for so long now…
Desperado
Oh, you ain’t getting no younger
Your pain and your hunger
They’re driving you home
And freedom, oh, freedom
Well that’s just some people talking
Your prison is walking through this world all alone
Desperado
Why don’t you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you
(Let somebody love you)
You better let someone love you
Before it’s too late.
“Desperado” (excerpts from the 1970’s song by the Eagles). Apologies to readers who were not born at that time! Linda Ronstadt did a classic cover version of the song. Diana Krall’s recent cover is also great.
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://genius.com/Eagles-desperado-lyrics
Johnson. (4 March 2017). Lexical treasures: Why words die (and how to stop a few of them from keeling over). The Economist, p. 69.
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