mournful

Etymology

It is formed from English mourn + -ful,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} and was first written morneful.^[3][5] The verb is from Old English murnan (“to feel or express sorrow”),^[3][7] through mornen,^[3] from Proto-Germanic *murnaną,^[3][8][9] with cognates in Old Saxon mornon, Old High German mornēn and Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌰𐌽 (maurnan).^[2][3] Etymonline, following Watkins, derives it probably from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember”),^[3] and the OED likewise thinks of the Indo-European base of memory.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a thing: expressing sorrow, doleful: before 1425, in the Medulla Grammatice.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century,^[3] and Merriam-Webster to the 15th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of things that express grief, and only later of the people who feel it (before 1558, in G. Cavendish's Metrical Visions).^[2] The sense "causing sorrow" followed about 1570;^[2] the Shorter Oxford calls it rare and quotes Shakespeare's "his mournful death" from 1 Henry VI.^[4] Formerly a mournful person could also be one making a show of grief.^[4] Johnson (1755) separates having the appearance of sorrow, causing it, feeling it and expressing it.^[6] In dialect, mournful sparrow was the butcher-bird in Sussex and mournful widow the sweet scabious in Devon.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1425 – of a thing, expressing sorrow.^[2]
• before 1558 – of a person, full of grief.^[2]
• c. 1570 – causing sorrow.^[2]
• early 17th century – the adverb mournfully.^[4]
• mid 17th century – the noun mournfulness.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of sorrow; grieving: The mournful widower sat alone by the window.^[10][12][2]
2. Expressing grief; doleful: The choir sang a mournful hymn.^[2][4][10]
3. Causing sorrow: The letter brought mournful tidings.^[10][12][2]
4. Gloomy in sound or look; dismal: the mournful hoot of an owl.^[10][12]

Word family

• mournfully
• mournfulness
• overmournful
• unmournful

Related words

• mourn
• mourner
• mourning
• memory

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
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 c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins