loneliness

Etymology

It is formed from English lonely + -ness.^[2][3][4][5] The adjective lonely is formed from lone and -ly,^[3][2] and lone is a shortening of alone.^[2][3] The OED's first record of loneliness, in Sidney's “Arcadia” (before 1586), is older than its first record of lonely, in Shakespeare's “Coriolanus” (before 1616).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The condition of being alone or solitary, without company: before 1586, in Sidney's Arcadia,^[2] where a large and cheerful gathering "grew to him a tedious loneliness".^[5] Etymonline dates it to the 1580s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the plain fact of being without company.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "solitude; want of company; disposition to avoid company".^[5] From 1748 the word also described a place: its being uninhabited or seldom visited,^[2][4] and in Shelley (1819) a lonely spot.^[2] The feeling of being alone, a dejection from want of companionship, is recorded from 1814, in Wordsworth's Excursion,^[2][3] three years after Etymonline's first record of the same sense of lonely.^[3] It is now the main meaning.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1586 – the condition of being alone or solitary.^[2][3]
• 1748 – the desolateness of a place.^[2]
• 1814 – the feeling of being alone; sadness from want of company.^[2][3]
• 1819 – a lonely spot.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Sadness at being alone or without friends or company: After the move she fought a long loneliness.^[4][2]
2. The fact or condition of being alone; isolation or solitude.^[6][4][2]
3. Remoteness from other people or houses; desolateness: the loneliness of the moors.^[6][4][2]

Related words

• lone
• alone
• lonesome

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster