mourn

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mornen, also murnen and mournen,^[2][3] inherited from Old English murnan (“to mourn, be sad, be anxious”),^[4][5][6][7] a strong verb (past tense mearn) that already had weak forms in Old English and is only weak in Middle English.^[6][5] It comes from Proto-Germanic *murnaną,^[8][9][3] which Etymonline glosses "to remember sorrowfully",^[5] and is cognate with Old Saxon mornon and mornian (“to be sorrowful or troubled”), Old High German mornēn (“to sorrow”) and Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌰𐌽 (maurnan, “to worry, be anxious”).^[6][7][3] The OED and Watkins refer it, probably, to the Indo-European base of memory,^[6][10][5] Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember”),^[5][10][7] the source also of Latin memor (“mindful”);^[3][7] the OED and Holthausen compare Ancient Greek μέριμνα (mérimna, “care, sorrow”) and μέρμερος (mérmeros, “causing much care”).^[6][11] Old Norse morna (“to pine away”) is often cited as a cognate,^[7][12][3] but the OED considers it probably unrelated;^[6] Etymonline notes that if the Norse sense were the oldest, the source might instead be *mer- (“to die, wither”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English the verb meant to feel or show grief, but also to be anxious or worried, to care about, and to yearn for something.^[6][4][5] It is recorded before 725, according to Barnhart,^[3] and appears in Beowulf and the poems of Cynewulf.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The senses "be anxious, care about" and "yearn for" died out: the OED's last records are of 1485 and 1594.^[6] The sense of grief remained and narrowed: lamenting a death is recorded in Beowulf,^[6] and with a dead person as object from about 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible;^[6] Hoad dates the sense "lament a death" to the 13th century.^[7] From the 1520s the verb also meant to show the conventional signs of grief for a time after a death.^[5][12] In Middle English it could still mean to grieve, to worry or to long for, and Chaucer used it six times.^[2][13] Johnson (1755) also gave "to utter in a sorrowful manner", quoting Milton's nightingale.^[14] An adjective mourn, sad, was used from about 1275 to 1330,^[6] and a noun mourn, grief or a lament, from before 1350; the noun survived in Scots and dialect,^[6][12] where it also meant a murmuring sound, as of a stream.^[15] In Scotland, the Lake District, Yorkshire, Worcestershire and Oxfordshire the verb also meant to moan or be peevish, and of cattle to low from hunger or illness.^[15] Merriam-Webster keeps an archaic sense, to droop or pine, as of flowers or cattle.^[16]

Timeline

• before 725 – Old English murnan, to grieve, to be anxious.^[3][4]
• Old English – to lament a death, in Beowulf.^[6]
• c. 1275 – adjective mourn, sad (obsolete by 1330).^[6]
• before 1350 – noun, sorrow, a lament.^[6]
• c. 1382 – to lament a dead person, with an object.^[6]
• 1485 – last record of "to be anxious, to care".^[6]
• 1520s – to wear or observe the signs of mourning.^[5]
• 1594 – last record of "to yearn for".^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To feel or show deep sorrow for someone who has died: The village mourned its oldest fisherman.^[17][16][6]
2. To grieve over a loss or misfortune; to regret deeply: Fans mourned the closing of the old stadium.^[17][16][6]
3. To follow the customs of mourning after a death, as by wearing black.^[17][12][5]
4. (archaic) To droop or pine.^[16][14]
5. (obsolete, Old English–1485) To be anxious or worried; to care about something.^[6][2]

Word family

• mourner
• mourningly
• unmourned
• unmourning
• mournful
• mourning
• overmourn
• mourning dove

Related words

• memory
• memorial
• moan

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins