desolation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English desolacioun, also dissolacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French desolacion (“devastation; hopelessness, despair”)^[3][4] and directly borrowed from Late Latin dēsōlātiō (“abandonment”),^[3][5][6][7] a noun of action from dēsōlō (“to leave alone, desert”), the source of desolate.^[3][4][7][8] The Latin verb is formed from dē- (“completely”) and sōlō (“to make lonely”), from sōlus (“alone”), the source of sole.^[3] The OED takes the English word from French or from Latin, and dates the French noun to the 12th century;^[4][3] the Shorter Oxford, Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Oxford Dictionary of English derive it from Late Latin alone.^[9][6][7] In Anglo-Norman the word is recorded from the second half of the 14th century, meaning dismay or grief and ruin.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The laying waste of a land, and grief or deprivation of comfort: both senses appear first in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible (before 1382 and 1382).^[4][11] Etymonline puts the sense "sorrow, grief, personal affliction" in the late 14th century and "the action of laying waste" about 1400.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the laying waste of a country the word passed to the ruined or barren state that results: Etymonline dates "condition of being ruined" to the early 15th century,^[3] and the OED's first record of this sense is in Lydgate, about 1460, where it also covers land that is naturally unfit to live in.^[4] In the 15th century the Middle English Dictionary records it for a state of distress or hardship and for destruction or desecration.^[2] A desolate place itself was called a desolation from 1611, in the King James Bible,^[4][3] and the sense of loneliness, of being forsaken, comes from Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost (1598).^[4][11] A rare use for that which makes desolate is recorded in 1608.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: destruction of inhabitants or ravage; gloominess, sadness or melancholy; and a place wasted and forsaken, quoting Jeremiah.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1382 – the laying waste of a land, devastation.^[4][11]
• 1382 – deprivation of comfort or joy; grief.^[4][11]
• c. 1460 – the ruined or barren state of a place.^[4]
• 1598 – loneliness, the state of being forsaken.^[4][11]
• 1608 – that which makes desolate (rare).^[4]
• 1611 – a desolate place, a dreary waste or ruin.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of laying waste to a place; ruin or devastation: The war left a trail of desolation across the valley.^[13][6][4]
2. The state of a place that is ruined, empty or barren.^[6][9][4]
3. Great loneliness or misery; wretchedness: a sense of desolation after the funeral.^[13][9][4]
4. A desolate place or region; a barren waste.^[13][4][9]

Related words

• desolate
• sole
• solitude
• solitary

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins