desperado

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˌdɛspəˈrɑdoʊ/ UK /ˌdɛspəˈrɑːdəʊ/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a bold, reckless criminal or outlaw, especially of the old West

The desperado was wanted in three territories for armed robbery.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a bold, reckless criminal... outlaw bandit criminal brigand ruffian cutthroat gangster

Word family

Related forms desperate despair desperation

Simplified etymology

Desperado is almost certainly an English pseudo-Spanish alteration of desperate, created in the early 17th century, probably to sound more impressive and emphatic. The noun desperate had referred first to someone in despair or desperate circumstances and later to someone made reckless by despair; desperado eventually displaced it. The ultimate source is Latin desperare “to deprive of hope,” also the source of despair.

Etymology

Pseudo-Spanish formation (with a mock-Spanish -ado ending) based on English desperate, ultimately from Latin desperatus ('hopeless'), from desperare ('to despair').

desperatus Latin sperare Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# desperado

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˌdɛspəˈrɑdoʊ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˌdɛspəˈrɑːdəʊ/

## Meanings
1. a bold, reckless criminal or outlaw, especially of the old West

## Examples
- The desperado was wanted in three territories for armed robbery.

## Synonyms
- outlaw
- bandit
- criminal
- brigand
- ruffian
- cutthroat
- gangster

## Related Forms
- desperate
- despair
- desperation

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: desperatus
- Root: sperare

## Etymology
Pseudo-Spanish formation (with a mock-Spanish -ado ending) based on English desperate, ultimately from Latin desperatus ('hopeless'), from desperare ('to despair').

## AI Etymology
Desperado has the etymological history Pseudo-Spanish formation (with a mock-Spanish -ado ending) based on English desperate, ultimately from Latin desperatus ('hopeless'), from desperare ('to despair'). The ancestry passes through Latin desperatus and Latin sperare. In present use as a noun, it means "a bold, reckless criminal or outlaw, especially of the old West", keeping the historical formation close to the word's ordinary semantic work. Related words include desperate, despair, and desperation. The surrounding word family keeps the same base visible in desperate, despair, and desperation, showing how the headword belongs to a larger cluster rather than standing alone.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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