Etymologically
Log in

mourn

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:20. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /mɔɹn/, /mɔːn/[1]

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

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