sadness

Etymology

It is formed from English sad + -ness,^[2][3][4][5] and was written sadnesse in Middle English.^[3][5][6] The OED also records an isolated Old English use for satiety, in a gloss to Prudentius.^[2] Sad is from Old English sæd (“sated, weary”),^[7][3][8] from Proto-Germanic *sadaz (“satiated, full”),^[9][10] the source also of Old Norse saðr, Old High German sat and Dutch zat.^[9][3] Kroonen takes it as the past participle of the root Proto-Indo-European *seh₂- (“to fill”),^[9] which Orel and Etymonline give as *sā- (“to satisfy”).^[10][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gravity of mind or manner, seriousness: about 1350, in the poems of William of Shoreham.^[2] Etymonline likewise dates the noun to the early 14th century with the sense "seriousness".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The prevailing Middle English senses of the adjective were firm, settled and serious,^[3] and through that period sadness usually meant solidity, firmness or toughness, permanence, maturity or sanity rather than grief.^[3] The Wycliffite Bible has it for steadfastness (about 1384) and Trevisa for hardness (before 1398).^[2] Chaucer uses sadnesse for seriousness and constancy.^[6][11] The sorrowful sense is first recorded about 1400, in a translation of Aelred of Rievaulx,^[2] though Etymonline regards it as secure only by about 1500.^[3] Ayto dates the same sense of sad to the 14th century,^[8] and in Johnson (1755) the sorrowful sense comes first, with "melancholy look" and "seriousness; sedate gravity" after it.^[12] The older meaning lived on in the phrase in sadness, in earnest, recorded from 1545 and used by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet;^[2][13] the English Dialect Dictionary still has it in Yorkshire and Cheshire, gravity in northeast Lancashire, and heaviness or solidity in Leicestershire and Warwickshire.^[13] From 1601, in Holland's Pliny, the word was also used for a gloomy appearance or a dark hue.^[2]

Timeline

• Old English – satiety, weariness, in a gloss.^[2]
• c. 1350 – seriousness, gravity (obsolete after 1869).^[2][3]
• c. 1384 – steadfastness, constancy, in the Wycliffite Bible (until 1555).^[2]
• before 1398 – firmness, hardness, solidity.^[2]
• c. 1400 – sorrow, mournfulness.^[2][3]
• before 1513 – dignity, importance.^[2]
• c. 1537 – a condition or instance of sorrow.^[2]
• 1545 – in sadness, in earnest.^[2]
• 1601 – a gloomy appearance or dark hue.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being sad; sorrow, unhappiness: A deep sadness settled over the village after the flood.^[5][2][12]
2. An instance of being sad, or something sorrowful or depressing: the small sadnesses of growing old.^[5][2]
3. in sadness (archaic, dialect): in earnest, seriously.^[2][13]
4. (rare) Firmness, solidity, now regional.^[2][13]
5. (rare) A gloomy appearance; a dark or sombre hue.^[2][12]
6. (obsolete, c. 1350–1869) Seriousness, gravity of mind or manner.^[2][12]
7. (obsolete, c. 1384–1555) Steadfastness, constancy.^[2][6]

Related words

• sad
• sate
• satiate
• satisfy
• saturate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d 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)