A forlorn hope is a band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the leading part in a military operation, such as an assault on a defended position, where the risk of casualties is high. The term comes from the Dutch verloren hoop, literally "lost heap" and adapted as "lost troop" through influence by Middle High German Hūfe/Houfe and modern German Haufe, fundamentally meaning "heap" but extended in military contexts to denote a troop formation. The old Dutch word hoop (in its sense of heap in English) is not cognate with English hope: this is an example of false folk etymology. In present-day Dutch the expression 'verloren hoop' could both mean "lost hope" as well as "a lost (useless or lonely) heap, pile, muck or mass".
Read more about Forlorn Hope: History
Famous quotes related to forlorn hope:
“As our actual present world ... shows itself more clearly—our world of an aristocracy materialised and null, a middle-class purblind and hideous, a lower class crude and brutal—we shall turn our eyes again, and to more purpose, upon this passionate and dauntless soldier of a forlorn hope.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)