1 Definition
A state of despair or hopelessness, especially a deep, settled loss of hope for the future.
2 In Use
After months of fruitless searching, a quiet wanhope settled over the family, though no one spoke it aloud.
3 Word Origin
wana O.E. · lacking, deficient → wanhope Middle English
Wanhope grew from the Old English prefix wan, meaning lacking or deficient, joined to the familiar word hope. The compound entered Middle English as its own standalone noun, naming the precise absence of hope rather than mere sadness. Medieval writers reached for it as the direct opposite of hope, a paired concept rather than a synonym for ordinary sorrow. Though it faded from everyday speech by the early modern period, the word never fully disappeared from literary and dialectal English.
💡Fun Fact
Wanhope appears repeatedly in medieval literature as something closer to a character trait or moral state than a passing mood. Chaucer used it in the Canterbury Tales, and the allegorical poem Piers Plowman features Wanhope as a figure who tempts people away from faith and effort entirely. Edmund Spenser later revived the word in The Faerie Queene, keeping its old sense of despair so total it borders on surrender. Contemporary writers occasionally dust it off for its unusual, almost musical sound, a word that carries centuries of literary weight in just two syllables.
