Etymograph

English

desperado

Desperado comes from Spanish desperado, from desesperar ‘to despair’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- ‘to succeed, prosper’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speh₁-1‘to succeed, prosper’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spéh₁s1‘prosperity’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*spēs1‘hope’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspēs2‘hope’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsperō3as sperare‘to hope’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdisperare3‘to despair, to lose hope’
  7. Spanishc. 1500–presentdesesperar3‘to despair’
  8. Spanishc. 1500–presentdesperado3archaic form of desesperar
  9. Englishearliest quotation 1850desperado3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin spes
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin spero
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English desperado
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1850, Thomas Carlyle, The present time: “The kind of persons who excite or give signal…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speh₁-Wiktionary, Latin spes‘to succeed, prosper’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spéh₁sWiktionary, Latin spes‘prosperity’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*spēsWiktionary, Latin spes‘hope’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspēsWiktionary, Latin spero‘hope’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsperōWiktionary, English desperadoas sperare‘to hope’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdisperareWiktionary, English desperado‘to despair, to lose hope’
  7. Spanishc. 1500–presentdesesperarWiktionary, English desperado‘to despair’
  8. Spanishc. 1500–presentdesperadoWiktionary, English desperadoarchaic form of desesperar
  9. Englishearliest quotation 1850desperadoWiktionary, English desperado. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1850, Thomas Carlyle, The present time: “The kind of persons who excite or give signal…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- ‘to succeed, prosper’

speed, spare, spatial, spat, prosper, 6 more

through Latin sperō ‘to hope’

despair, esperanza, esperance, 3 more

Today it means

noun A bold outlaw, especially one from southern portions of the Wild West.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “desperado”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin spes, Latin spero. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- / desperado

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