As a noun, despair is the feeling that there is no hope and nothing will get better. As a verb, to despair means to lose all hope about something.
From Old French "desespoir" and Latin "desperare" meaning "to lose hope," formed from "de-" (away) and "sperare" (to hope). It has been used in English since the Middle Ages to describe deep hopelessness.
Despair is literally "un-hoping"—letting hope fall away. In stories and psychology, the turning point often comes right after despair, when a tiny new hope appears and changes everything.
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