/ ˌdespəˈrɑːdəʊ; NAmE -doʊ/ noun
( pl. -oes or -os ) ( old-fashioned ) a man who does dangerous and criminal things without caring about himself or other people
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WORD ORIGIN
early 17th cent.: pseudo-Spanish alteration of the obsolete noun desperate . Both desperate and desperado originally denoted a person in despair or in a desperate situation, hence someone made reckless by despair.