Despite means regardless of something that might have stopped it. Despite the rain, despite everything, despite himself.
It takes a noun and never a clause — despite the delay, not despite it was late, which is the commonest error with it. In spite of means the same and is three words. Note that the word once meant contempt, from the Latin for looking down on, and survives in that sense in despite of.
1prepositiondespiteRegardless of something that might have stopped it.
“Despite the rain, thousands of people came to the outdoor concert.”
despite is a preposition of contrast.
Old French despit means contempt, from Latin despicere, to look down on. Despise and spite come from the same looking down.
Proto-Indo-European
*speḱ-
Latin
dēspectum — looking down on
Old French
despit
Middle English
despit
English, today
despite
Built from
The noun is derived from Middle English despit, dispit, from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). The preposition is derived from Middle English dispit, itself derived from the phrase in dispit of (in despite of). Compare typologically несмотря́ на (< смотре́ть); невзира́я на (< взира́ть), презре́в (< презре́ть <~ зреть) (compare despite—despise relation).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA