The state or quality of being sad, discouraged, and lacking in hope.
Derived from dispirited + -ness (a suffix that turns adjectives into abstract nouns). The -ness suffix comes from Old English and has been used since Anglo-Saxon times.
English speakers love adding -ness to create abstract nouns for qualities—it's so flexible that you can theoretically make this noun form from almost any adjective, which is why English feels like a language that constantly creates new words.
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