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A friend of mine, a respected linguist, mentioned recently that "despite" (prep) is outdated. Whilst it is true that I hardly ever hear someone using the word in ordinary conversation, I still hear it in scientific seminars, lectures, congresses, etc and I also come across it in technical texts once in a while. What I mean here is "despite" and not "despite of" or "in despite of" which are clearly archaic. The search I've done includes the mainstream dictionaries (ODO, TFD, Merriam-Webster, etc) and they don't mention the word being outdated.

Centaurus
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3 Answers3

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Well, here's the Google Ngram for despite. I don't know what it would look like if it was becoming outdated, but I doubt it would look like this:

Heartspring
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Araucaria - Him
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  • I'm surprised. What about its use in ordinary conversation, do you ever hear it? Do you use it? – Centaurus Jan 06 '15 at 22:00
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    Hard to say whether I hear it or use it (because I don't monitor my conversation like that) but if I didn't I'd expect to feel that it was strange or unusual and I don't (in British English at least). Despite seems quite a normal word. – Francis Davey Jan 06 '15 at 22:21
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    @centaurus I definitely heard it in an interview I had the other day. It's also generally on the lists of different kinds of "linkers" for students doing English for Academic Purposes, IELTS, CAE and the like - one of the reasons that I decided to check it out. – Araucaria - Him Jan 07 '15 at 00:58
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    @Centaurus I still hear people say it, and I use it myself. – Shokhet Jan 07 '15 at 04:53
  • @Centaurus Same here. I use it and hear other people using it in conversation. I think your friend needs to go back and take a look at what made them say that to you. "Despite of" and "in despite of" aren't completely outdated either, though they're probably at least beginning to head in that general direction. (They're becoming kind of an elitist English teacher thing these days; the word "despite" though, in and of itself, is something almost everybody uses sooner or later.) – Panzercrisis Jan 07 '15 at 13:37
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    I use it frequently. Though I often change it up with "in spite of" so as to not sound repetitive. Admittedly, I use the word "despite" far more often when writing than speaking in everyday conversation. – Ten Bitcomb Jan 07 '15 at 20:40
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    Even more to the point, here's a more complete picture. Not only is despite quickly gaining momentum, but the only real alternative in spite of is just as quickly losing in popularity. – RegDwigнt Jan 08 '15 at 15:45
  • @RegDwigнt Saved me a job, Was just wondering about that right this second! – Araucaria - Him Jan 08 '15 at 15:46
  • It's from this answer to a related question. This site has a graph for everything. – RegDwigнt Jan 08 '15 at 16:01
  • @RegDwigнt Nice post. I was wondering before you put that link in whether in spite of was going to be losing out because of word counts in academic journals and the like ... It's two extra words, after all. – Araucaria - Him Jan 08 '15 at 16:05
  • What earthshaking events occurred around 1950-1960? https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=despite%2Cin+spite+of&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cdespite%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bdespite%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BDespite%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cin%20spite%20of%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bin%20spite%20of%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BIn%20spite%20of%3B%2Cc0#t4%3B%2Cdespite%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bdespite%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BDespite%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cin%20spite%20of%3B%2Cc1%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bin%20spite%20of%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BIn%20spite%20of%3B%2Cc0 – Kris Feb 05 '15 at 14:37
  • I fixed the link to the ngram, but looks like the image you had has gone missing. (see revision history) – Heartspring May 20 '23 at 19:34
  • @Heartspring Thanks – Araucaria - Him May 21 '23 at 12:08
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Uses of despite found on the web in the last hour

Uses of despite found on news sites in the last hour

It's alive and well.

Jon Hanna
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is it still being used?

An example, from the Associated Press, dated tomorrow
(so, it seems not only is it being used now, it will still be used in the future!)

American businesses ramped up hiring last month, in the latest sign that the nation’s economy is expanding despite worries about global growth.

GEdgar
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