[General] Forlorn vs desperate.

[Tharwa]

Hello,
I have been looking online for the difference between desperate and forlorn but I quite think they are the same. Even the sentence I am working on doesn't make it easier for me. The sentence is as follows:

On being told that his team had not made it to the finals, his face dropped, and he looked most desperate/forlorn.

Thank you

 

[Barb_D]

Welcome to the forums.

I don't see how those words are the same at all.

Please post what definitions you have found of the two words that makes you believe they have the same meanings.

 

[Tharwa]

Thank you.
Here is the definition online and desperate is a synonym:

[h=2]for·lorn[/h] (fər-lôrn′, fôr-)adj.1.a. Abandoned, deserted, or desolate: "my high school chums ... enjoying cider and doughnuts ... while I was trapped up on thatforlorn mountain" (Howard Frank Mosher).
b. Sad or lonely, especially from being deserted or abandoned: "waved them goodbye from the door like forlorn parents wavingoff a honeymoon couple" (Anne Bartlett).
c. Suggesting or characterized by sadness or loneliness: the forlorn whistle of a train in the night.
d. Wretched or pitiful in appearance or condition: people living in forlorn shacks.

2. Bereft or deprived: forlorn of all hope.
3. Nearly hopeless; desperate: a forlorn acknowledgment of failure.

 

[Raymott]

I agree with Barb. A person could look forelorn or desperate, but usually not both.
Synonyms mean very little if you have two words to choose between. Synonyms most often do not mean the same thing. Which of the above definitions of forlorn do you find to mean 'desperate' when you looked up 'desperate'?

 

[Tharwa]

I agree with Barb. A person could look forelorn or desperate, but usually not both.
Synonyms mean very little if you have two words to choose between. Synonyms most often do not mean the same thing. Which of the above definitions of forlorn do you find to mean 'desperate' when you looked up 'desperate'?

Thank you Raymot.

desperate
ˈdɛsp(ə)rət/
adjective
[COLOR=#878787 !important][/COLOR]

• 1.
  feeling or showing a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with.
  [COLOR=#878787 !important]"a desperate sadness enveloped Ruth"[/COLOR]
  

  synonyms:

  despairing, hopeless; More

  
  
  
  

 

[Raymott]

Well, I was hoping for a link. They generally don't mean the same thing.
In any case, in your example, "a desperate sadness enveloped Ruth", it was Ruth's sadness that was desperate, not Ruth herself. But, she may have looked forlorn; she may have looked desperate. But in your example, they had to put "sadness", which pretty much makes most of the meaning of 'forlorn' without 'desperate' being mentioned.

I think the answer is forlorn.

 

[tedmc]

"Forlorn" is associated with having lost hope and the feeling and appearance of sadness.
When someone is "desperate", he/she tends to resort to take desparate actions.

not a teacher