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Sorrow
Definitions
- 1 A surname.
- 1 unhappiness, woe uncountable
"But sorrow that is couch'd in seeming gladness Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness."
- 2 something that causes great unhappiness wordnet
- 3 (usually in plural) An instance or cause of unhappiness. countable
"Parting is such sweet sorrow."
- 4 an emotion of great sadness associated with loss or bereavement wordnet
- 5 sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment wordnet
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- 6 the state of being sad wordnet
- 1 To feel or express grief. intransitive
"‘Sorrow not, sir,’ says he, ‘like those without hope.’"
- 2 feel grief wordnet
- 3 To feel grief over; to mourn, regret. transitive
"It is impossible to make a man naturally blind, to conceive that he seeth not; impossible to make him desire to see, and sorrow his defect."
Etymology
From Middle English sorwe, sorow, sorewe, from Old English sorg, sorh (“care, anxiety, sorrow, grief”), from Proto-West Germanic *sorgu, from Proto-Germanic *surgō (compare West Frisian soarch, Dutch zorg, German Sorge, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sorg), from Proto-Indo-European *swergʰ- (“watch over, worry; be ill, suffer”) (compare Old Irish serg (“sickness”), Tocharian B sark (“sickness”), Lithuanian sirgti (“be sick”), Sanskrit सूर्क्षति (sū́rkṣati, “worry”). Despite the similarity in form and meaning, not historically related to sorry and sore.
From Middle English sorwe, sorow, sorewe, from Old English sorg, sorh (“care, anxiety, sorrow, grief”), from Proto-West Germanic *sorgu, from Proto-Germanic *surgō (compare West Frisian soarch, Dutch zorg, German Sorge, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sorg), from Proto-Indo-European *swergʰ- (“watch over, worry; be ill, suffer”) (compare Old Irish serg (“sickness”), Tocharian B sark (“sickness”), Lithuanian sirgti (“be sick”), Sanskrit सूर्क्षति (sū́rkṣati, “worry”). Despite the similarity in form and meaning, not historically related to sorry and sore.
Probably a calque of German Sorge (“sorrow”).
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