desolate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English desolat,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin dēsōlātus (“left alone, forsaken, deserted”), the past participle of dēsōlō (“to leave alone, desert, abandon”),^[5][6][4][2] formed from dē- (“completely”) and sōlō (“to make lonely”), from sōlus (“alone, lonely”),^[5][6][4][7] the source of sole "alone".^[6][4][7] The American Heritage Dictionary places the Latin adjective under the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *s(w)e-.^[2] The OED notes that the earliest English uses were more or less participial.^[5] The verb, recorded from 1382 in the Wycliffite Bible, was formed from the adjective after the Latin verb and French désoler;^[5] Barnhart thinks it was perhaps influenced by Old French desoler, and perhaps also a back-formation from desolation.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a place, without inhabitants, deserted: about 1374, in Chaucer's Anelida and Arcite.^[5] Etymonline dates the sense "disconsolate, miserable" to the mid-14th century,^[6] and Barnhart dates the adjective to probably about 1350.^[4] In the early Wycliffite Bible (before 1382) the word, still close to a past participle, meant laid waste.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Chaucer the word already had several senses: "left alone, solitary", as in the line on the unmarried man in the Merchant's Tale, "He lyveth helplees and al desolat";^[5][8] "destitute of, lacking" (used until about 1720); and in the Pardoner's Tale "evil, abandoned", a sense the OED thinks was sometimes confused with dissolute and which lasted until the late 18th century.^[5][3] Gower used it in 1393 of a land without a king.^[5] Hoad summarises the shift as "left alone, deserted" in the 14th century and "destitute of life, joy, or comfort" in the 15th.^[9] The sense "dreary, dismal" is recorded from 1413, "forlorn, wretched with grief" from 1477 in Caxton, "in ruins" from 1559 and "barren, without vegetation" from 1779.^[5] The verb meant first to depopulate (1382) and to lay waste (before 1425), then from 1530 to forsake and to make wretched;^[5] Etymonline dates the sense "overwhelm with grief" to the 1520s.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave "without inhabitants" as the adjective's first sense, quoting Macbeth: "Let us seek some desolate shade".^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – of a place, uninhabited, deserted, in Chaucer.^[5]
• 1382 – verb, to deprive of inhabitants, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[5] Barnhart dates the verb to 1384.^[4]
• c. 1386 – left alone, solitary; also destitute of, lacking, and evil (both now obsolete), in Chaucer.^[5]
• 1393 – without a king (obsolete by 1489), in Gower.^[5]
• 1413 – dreary, dismal.^[5]
• before 1425 – verb, to lay waste.^[5]
• 1477 – forlorn, overwhelmed with grief, in Caxton.^[5]
• 1530 – verb, to forsake; to make wretched.^[5]
• 1559 – in ruins, laid waste.^[5]
• 1779 – bare of trees or plants, barren.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Empty of people; uninhabited or deserted: They camped on a desolate stretch of moorland.^[11][3][5]
2. Laid waste; in ruins or barren.^[11][5]
3. Without friends, hope or comfort; forlorn or wretched: He felt desolate after his sister moved abroad.^[11][3][5]
4. Gloomy, dismal or cheerless.^[11][5]
5. (obsolete, 1386–1720) Lacking, destitute.^[5][3]
6. (obsolete, 1386–1782) Lacking goodness; dissolute or evil.^[5][3]

Verb

1. To deprive of inhabitants; depopulate.^[11][3][5]
2. To lay waste; devastate or make barren.^[11][3][5]
3. To make wretched or forlorn; to overwhelm with grief.^[11][5]
4. To forsake or abandon.^[11][3][5]

Word family

• desolately
• desolateness
• desolatingly
• desolater

Related words

• desolation
• sole
• solitary
• solitude

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins