Dictionary

wanhope en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈwɒnhəʊp/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈwɑnhoʊp/ (General-American)

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (UK, archaic, dialectal, uncountable, usually) Lack of hope; hopelessness; despair.
   • Wanhope: a fine English word, suggesting unhope of Langland's story of the cats and the mice, and described in Ipotis,[…] 1898, Georgiana Lea Morril, editor, Speculum Gy de Warewyke: An English Poem, page 57:
   • 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) 1991, Vladimir Ivir, Damir Kalogjera, editors, Languages in Contact and Contrast, →ISBN, page 411:
   • Both despair and wanhope are generally defined as a complete loss or lack of hope and being overcome by sense of futility or defeat. 2007, Michael D. C. Drout, J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: scholarship and critical assessment:
2. (uncountable, usually) Vain hope; overconfidence; delusion.

Forms

Synonyms

pipe dream · unhope · despond · pie in the sky · wanhope · despond · hopelessness · unhope · despair · desperation · despondency