A person who despairs; someone who has lost hope or becomes hopeless.
From despair + -er (agent noun suffix meaning one who). The term appeared in English literature to describe individuals trapped in hopelessness.
Literature is full of 'despairers'—Hamlet, Pip from Great Expectations—characters whose internal despair becomes as much a character trait as their other qualities, showing that hopelessness can define a person's entire story.
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