{"id":2447,"date":"2025-03-16T20:15:05","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T00:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2025-03-16T20:20:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T00:20:53","slug":"word-of-the-week-despondent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/2025\/03\/16\/word-of-the-week-despondent\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Week! Despondent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Man<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s okay in these troubled times to feel despondent, as long as. you understand what the word means. I used it the other day in a light-hearted way, when touring Colonial Williamsburg. At the Governor’s Palace, two cooks were preparing a Colonial-era meal. The food smelled wonderful, and I said I’d like some. “Sorry, Sir,” came the reply. “It’s for the Governor’s table.”<\/p>\n

I told the woman that I, a mere commoner, felt despondent.<\/p>\n

“Nice choice of word!” she answered, without feeding me. I informed her that at least we had filled my belly with a word for this week.<\/p>\n

For once, The OED entry<\/a> on our word proves very brief, giving good definitions related to “loss of heart or resolution,” or simply being depressed. I find it depressing that the entry provides no examples of usage newer than 1849. How could such a useful word fall out of favor? Do we simply say “depressed” nowadays?<\/p>\n

The word is of Latin origin, from d\u0113spond\u0113ntem,\u00a0<\/em>with frequency of use falling markedly until about 1980, when despondent enjoyed (if that’s the term for it) an uptick in use. The Gay 1890s proved a paradoxically high-water mark, and now we are back about to 1960 in use of our word.<\/p>\n

We need synonyms for unpleasant things. Saying “I’m down” or “I’m bummed out” do not work in formal prose. So cheer up! Even if I didn’t make you feel better, at least I’ve given you an new word for feeling bad.<\/p>\n

Send me words and metaphors, uplifting or depressing, at jessid-at-richmond-edu or by leaving a comment below.<\/p>\n

See all of our Metaphors of the Month\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and Words of the Week\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Image: Man probably looking at S&P 500 since January. Creative-Commons image from freestockphotos.biz<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s okay in these troubled times to feel despondent, as long as. you understand what the word means. I used it the other day in a light-hearted way, when touring Colonial Williamsburg. At the Governor’s Palace, two cooks were preparing a Colonial-era meal. The food smelled wonderful, and I said I’d like some. “Sorry, Sir,” … Continue reading Word of the Week! Despondent<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6904,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2516,87405,40199,40197],"tags":[2522],"class_list":["post-2447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-writing","category-etymology","category-literature","category-vocabulary","tag-word-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2452,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions\/2452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}