Despondent means having lost all hope that things will improve. Not sad about one thing — flat about everything.
It describes a settled low state rather than a sharp grief, and it usually follows a long run of disappointments: despondent about the job search, growing despondent after months of it. The word is formal and a shade literary. It takes about or over. The noun is despondency, and the adverb despondently usually attaches to a verb of movement, since somebody walks away despondently.
1adjectivedespondentIn low spirits from a loss of hope.
“He grew despondent after the third rejection.”
Despondent has given up. Latin dēspondēre meant to abandon or to yield, so a despondent person has surrendered rather than merely turned sad.
Latin
dēspondēns
English, today
despondent
Built from
From Latin dēspondēns, from the verb despondere (“to give up, to abandon”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA