67: desperation Feb 13, 2015

Happy Friday the 13th, and unhappy desperation day everyone. The word despair came to English from the verb out of Old French 'desperer', which comes from Latin desperare, from 'de-', meaning ‘down from’ + 'sperare' which means ‘to hope'. This 'down from' indicates a lacking of, and in this case what is being lacked, is hope.