望
望 – Wang4 – Hope, Watch, Gaze, Full Moon
Today 失望 – Shi1 Wang4 – Fail Hope — Despair turned to 指望 – Zhi3 Wang3 – Point Hope — Hope as we completed the majority of our Christmas shopping by making our annual Pilgrimage to the Really Big Mall, as well as by mashing the ‘SUBMIT’ button on the order-confirmation page at several different web sites, where shopping carts full of gifts had been pre-positioned days and weeks ago, waiting to be called into action should the need arise.
By the way, I think it’s pretty interesting that the same word means Hope, Gaze and Full Moon.