hope

Hope comes from Middle English hopen, from Old English hopian, tracing back to Proto-West Germanic *hopōn, though what lies before that is unclear. The noun form comes from Old English hopa, a related but separate word meaning 'hope, expectation.'

The verb and noun have run side by side since Old English, with the noun eclipsing the borrowed French word esperance, which once competed with it in early modern English.

It shares its Proto-West Germanic root with Dutch and German hoffen, Danish håbe, Swedish hoppas, and Yiddish hofn — all meaning 'to hope,' a whole family of Germanic languages leaning toward the same expectation.