mourning

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mourning, also morning,^[2] inherited from Old English murnung (“complaint, grief, act of lamenting”),^[3][4][5] the verbal noun of murnan (“to mourn, be sad”), the source of mourn.^[3][6] The OED and the Shorter Oxford treat it as formed within English from the verb and the suffix -ing.^[7][8] The verb comes from Proto-Germanic *murnaną,^[6][9] and is cognate with Old Saxon mornian, Old High German mornēn, Old Norse morna and Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌰𐌽 (maurnan).^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Anxiety, worry: the OED's first quotation is from Bald's Leechbook in early Old English,^[7] and Bosworth–Toller glosses the Old English word "grief, anxiety".^[5] The sense of sorrow or lamentation is recorded from about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle;^[7] Etymonline dates it to about 1200.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense of anxiety died out after 1475, and a Middle English sense "yearning, pining from love" was used only in the 14th century.^[7] The narrower sense, grief for a person's death, appears before 1325 in Genesis and Exodus, and the ceremonial display of that grief, especially by wearing black, from the Wycliffite Bible of 1382.^[7] The OED records mourning for the clothes worn by mourners from about 1450,^[7] while Etymonline dates this sense to the 1650s and the phrase mourning habit to the late 14th century.^[3] The plural mournings, in this sense, is recorded from 1634 and is now chiefly Scots and northern English.^[7] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, "lamentation; sorrow" and "the dress of sorrow".^[10] The phrase in mourning is recorded from the King James Bible of 1611;^[7] it was used from 1799 of a ship displaying signs of a death on board, and humorously from 1807 of something blackened with dirt or bruising, as a black eye.^[7] In 19th-century slang butcher's mourning was a white hat with a black band.^[11] The North American mourning dove (1820) is named for its call.^[3] In Scots a mourning string was a streamer worn round the hat.^[12]

Timeline

• before 900 – Old English murnung, anxiety, worry (obsolete by 1475).^[7][4]
• c. 1225 – sorrow, lamentation.^[7] Etymonline dates it to about 1200.^[3]
• c. 1300 – yearning, pining from love (obsolete by 1400).^[7]
• before 1325 – grief for a person's death.^[7]
• 1382 – the ceremonial display of grief for a death.^[7]
• c. 1450 – the black clothes worn by mourners.^[7] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1650s.^[3]
• 1611 – in mourning.^[7]
• 1799 – of a ship, showing signs that a death has occurred.^[7]
• 1807 – humorously, blackened with dirt or bruising.^[7]
• 1820 – mourning dove.^[3]
• 1840 – butcher's mourning, a white hat with a black band.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of mourning; the expression or feeling of grief, especially for someone who has died: The town was plunged into mourning.^[13][2][7]
2. The conventional signs of grief, such as black clothes or armbands: She wore mourning for a year.^[13][7][8]
3. The period during which a death is formally mourned.^[13][8]
4. in mourning: observing the customs of mourning.^[13][7]

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or used in mourning: a mourning band.^[13][7]

Word family

• mourningly
• deep mourning
• mourning cloak
• mourning dove
• mourning warbler

Related words

• mourn

Usage notes

A separate, now obsolete mourning, in mourning of the chine, was a disease of horses, glanders; it is recorded from the 15th to the 18th century and was probably an alteration of a French name for the disease, French mortechien.^[7][8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins