Italian

Verb

spero

1. first-person singular present indicative of sperare

Anagrams

• perso, porse, preso, prose, spore

Latin

Etymology

Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- ‎(“to prosper, to turn out well”), (compare Hittite [script needed] ‎(ispai)[script needed], Avestan [script needed] ‎(spənvat-)[script needed], Sanskrit स्फायते ‎(sphā́yatē, “to grow fast”), Lithuanian spėti, Slavic *spěti, Tocharian B ?spāw- ‎(“to subside, run dry”)), English speed. Some make this the same root as Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- ‎(“to stretch, to pull”), whence Latin pēnūria, spatium, Ancient Greek σπάω ‎(spáō), πένομαι ‎(pénomai), πένης ‎(pénēs), πόνος ‎(pónos), πεῖνα ‎(peîna), σπάνις ‎(spánis), English span.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈspeː.roː/

Verb

spērō ‎(present infinitive spērāre, perfect active spērāvī, supine spērātum); first conjugation

1. I hope, expect
   • Spero ut pacem habeant semper

     I hope that they may always have peace.

2. I await, anticipate
3. I fear, am apprehensive
4. I assume, suppose

Inflection

Derived terms

• dēspērō

Related terms

• spēs

Descendants

References

• spero in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• spero in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “spero”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • he is a young man of great promise: adulescens alios bene de se sperare iubet, bonam spem ostendit or alii de adulescente bene sperare possunt
    
  • I flatter myself with the hope..: sperare videor
    
  • to hope well of a person: bene, optime (meliora) sperare de aliquo (Nep. Milt. 1. 1)