entry
hope
/hoʊp/Optimistic expectation or desire for a good outcome
From O.English; further origin uncertain hop- (hope).
from Old English hopa (“hope, expectation”)
from Old English hopian (“hope”)
from Middle English hopen
from Middle English hopen
Word Ancestry
from Old English hopa (“hope, expectation”)
from Old English hopian (“hope”)
from Middle English hopen
from Middle English hopen
Hope has an unusually modest paper trail: English has it in Old English as hopa, “expectation,” and hopian, “to hope,” but nobody can securely explain where the Germanic family got it. That is striking because the word was already doing serious theological work—trusting in God’s promise—long before it became the everyday phrase “I hope the bus comes.” The related North Sea forms include Dutch hopen and German hoffen, with German apparently borrowing its form from Low German. English once had the elegant French borrowing esperance, but hope eventually pushed it aside. Do not confuse its ancestry with desperate and despair, which really do descend from Latin sperare, “to hope,” through de-, “without”: hope is the mysterious native cousin, while despair is hope after the Latin paperwork has gone horribly wrong.
The Story
Hope has an unusually modest paper trail: English has it in Old English as hopa, “expectation,” and hopian, “to hope,” but nobody can securely explain where the Germanic family got it. That is striking because the word was already doing serious theological work—trusting in God’s promise—long before it became the everyday phrase “I hope the bus comes.” The related North Sea forms include Dutch hopen and German hoffen, with German apparently borrowing its form from Low German. English once had the elegant French borrowing esperance, but hope eventually pushed it aside. Do not confuse its ancestry with desperate and despair, which really do descend from Latin sperare, “to hope,” through de-, “without”: hope is the mysterious native cousin, while despair is hope after the Latin paperwork has gone horribly wrong.
Modern Usage
A personal name associated in slang usage with a beautiful, kind, outgoing woman
Kin & Kindred
From 'hop-'·hope, expectation, confidence
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Etymonline
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary