wanhope

English

Etymology

From Middle English wanhope, equivalent to wan- +‎ hope. Cognate with Scots wanhop, wanhope (“wanhope, despair”), West Frisian wanhope (“wanhope, despair”), Dutch wanhoop (“despair”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒnhəʊp/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑnhoʊp/

Noun

wanhope (usually uncountable, plural wanhopes)

1. (UK dialectal or archaic) Lack of hope; hopelessness; despair.
   • Late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Knight's Tale’, Canterbury Tales:

     Wel oughte I sterve in wanhope and distresse. / Farwel my lif, my lust, and my gladnesse!

   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter X, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVI:

     Thenne he ouertoke a man clothed in a Relygyous clothynge / […] / and sayd syre knyȝte what seke yow / Syre sayd he I seke my broder that I sawe within a whyle beten with two knyghtes / A Bors discomforte yow not / ne falle in to no wanhope / for I shall telle you tydynges suche as they ben / for truly he is dede

     Then he overtook a man clothed in a Religious clothing / […] / and said sir knight what seek you / Sir said he I seek my brother that I saw within a while beaten with two knights / Ah Bors discomfort you not / nay fall into no wanhope / for I shall tell you tidings such as they been / for truly he is dead.

   • 1898, Georgiana Lea Morril, editor, Speculum Gy de Warewyke: An English Poem, page 57:

     Wanhope: a fine English word, suggesting unhope of Langland's story of the cats and the mice, and described in Ipotis, […]

   • 1991, Vladimir Ivir, Damir Kalogjera, editors, Languages in Contact and Contrast, →ISBN, page 411:

     If […] such good old English words as inwit and wanhope should be rehabilitated (and they have been pushing up their heads for thirty years), we should gain a great deal. (Collected essays, 1928, III.68)

   • 2007, Michael D. C. Drout, J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: scholarship and critical assessment:

     Both despair and wanhope are generally defined as a complete loss or lack of hope and being overcome by sense of futility or defeat.

2. Vain hope; overconfidence; delusion.

References

• Middle English Dictionary Entry - wanhope