regrettable

Etymology

It is formed from English regret + -able,^[2][3][4] originally on the model of French regrettable, earlier regretable, recorded in Middle French from 1515.^[2] Dictionary.com and Klein take the English word straight from French.^[5][6] The verb regret comes from Middle English regreten, from Old French regreter (“to long after, bewail, lament”),^[3][2] whose further origin is disputed: the OED thinks a compound of re- and the Germanic base of the verb greet "to weep" more likely than the Latin sources commonly proposed.^[2] Etymonline compares Old English grǣtan (“to weep”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Deserving regret or giving cause for it: 1603, in J. Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essayes.^[2][7] Etymonline dates it to about 1600,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1595–1605.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The 1989 edition of the OED called the word "common in recent use", a remark Etymonline repeats.^[8][3] The revised OED notes that it is now often used in a weakened sense, of something merely undesirable or unwelcome, typically of conduct or events.^[2][4] A rare sense, of something lost or absent that deserves to be remembered with sorrow or longing, is recorded only between 1835 and 1871.^[2][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records the less common spelling regretable.^[7]

Timeline

• 1603 – deserving of or causing regret.^[2][7]
• 1835 – of something lost, to be remembered with longing (obsolete by 1871).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Deserving regret or giving cause for it; unfortunate: a regrettable loss of life.^[7][9][2]
2. In a weaker sense, of conduct or events: undesirable, unwelcome, open to censure: The meeting ended with some regrettable remarks from the chair.^[2][4]

Word family

• regrettableness
• regrettably
• unregrettable

Related words

• regret
• regretful
• regretfully

Usage notes

The OED records regretfully as a sentence adverb meaning "regrettably, unfortunately" from 1945; its 1982 Supplement called this "a regrettable use", probably modelled on hopefully, but the revised OED regards it as well established.^[2] Wiktionary notes that careful usage keeps regretfully, "with regret", apart from regrettably, "unfortunately".^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c 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. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin