Hey fedizens
Bit of an odd linguistic query for anybody with knowledge of English, in any and all forms, regions, dialects, etc.
Is there a simple, true neutral (realistic) alternative for the verb to hope, and maybe even a true negative (pessimistic form)?
We've thought and posted a fair bit about the concept of hope recently-ish, particularly in this post after watching a John Green video.
On the back of this, we've realised that hope is a word that has a positive, optimistic connotation inherently within it, at least as we understand and use it.
When somebody says that they hope that something will happen, they are simultaneously communicating that:
- they want this thing to happen;
- they recognise that it may not happen;
- they nonetheless believe that it could happen, and are somewhat biased towards it happening.
We've seen underhope and overhope suggested on Wiktionary, but never read, heard, or otherwise seen these in real world usage, and overhope is what most people seem to mean when they use variants of hope like hopeful.
The closest we've found is wish, but it doesn't work as a verb replacement. You can use it as a noun to some extent, but it sounds anachronistic and clunky.
e.g.,
I hope that you are doing okay.It is my fondest wish that you are doing okay.
We're curious about all the other forms and variants, but it's the verb that we cannot find in-use realistic or pessimistic forms for.
For the realistic (true neutral) form, we're looking for a verb that conveys that:
- you want this thing to happen;
- you know it technically could happen, from a statistical point of view;
- you cannot be hopeful, as you have decent grasp of the situation, the challenges, and so on.
For the pessimistic (true negative) form, we're looking for a verb that conveys that:
- you want this thing to happen;
- you recognise that it could happen, theoretically;
- you do not believe there's any realistic prospect of this happening.
Any ideas, thoughts, or suggestions within the broad scope of all English variants?
Genuinely asking, but -- as per usual -- no reply guys please 🫶
Boosts and friendly quotes welcome
In the meantime, where hope is the defacto optimistic form, all we feel like we can say to folks is something like:
We wish we could hope that...
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