sorrow

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English sorwe, also sorge and sorowe,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English sorg, also sorh,^[2][5][6][7] inherited from Proto-Germanic *surgō (“grief, sorrow, worry”).^[8][9] Its relatives in the other Germanic languages include Old Saxon sorga, Old High German sorga (modern Sorge), zorg, Old Norse sorg and Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌲𐌰 (saurga, “care, grief”),^{[5][2][6][4][8]} many of which mean "care, worry" as much as "grief".^[5][10] The verb is inherited from Middle English sorwen, inherited from Old English sorgian, formed from the noun.^[2][5][7] Outside Germanic the word is probably related to Sanskrit सूर्क्षति (sūrkṣati, “cares about”), Old Irish serg (“sickness”), sirgti (“to be ill”) and Old Church Slavonic срагъ (sragŭ, “terrible”),^{[5][4][3][11]} which Etymonline refers, with a "perhaps", to Proto-Indo-European *swergʰ- (“to worry, be sick”);^[2] Kroonen and Orel reconstruct a root that varied between *sergʰ- and Etymonline's form.^[8][9] Despite the resemblance, sorrow is not related to sore or sorry, though the meaning of sorry has been influenced by it.^[2][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mental distress caused by loss or misfortune; grief, deep sadness, and also its cause: the OED's first example is from the Old English poem Guthlac B,^[5] and Barnhart dates the word to about 725, in Beowulf.^[13] Old English sorg covered grief, regret, trouble, care and anxiety.^[2][13] The verb is first quoted from King Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English sorrow could also mean bodily pain (about 1225 to 1652)^[5] and harm or mischief (about 1380 to 1589).^[5] From about 1250 it also meant the outward show of grief, mourning and weeping.^[5] It was used in curses such as sorrow on you and sorrow take him from the 14th century, a use that lasted longest in Scotland, Ireland and the north of England, where sorrow also came to mean the devil and served to make a strong negative (the sorrow a bit, not a bit).^[5][14] The personified Sorrow of poetry dates from before 1350, and a person who causes grief has been called someone's sorrow since Milton's Lycidas (1638).^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as grief and sadness, and quoted Locke's distinction that sorrow is felt for a good that has been lost rather than for a present evil.^[15] The verb meant "to make someone grieve" in Old English,^[5] and "to grieve for" from the early 15th century.^[5][2] The proverb he that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing is first recorded from Thomas Tusser in 1573.^[5] In Warwickshire, someone who marries badly was said to sup sorrow by spoonfuls, to live a sad life.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 725 – sorg, in Beowulf.^[13]
• Old English – grief, sadness; the verb sorgian, to grieve.^[5]
• c. 1150 – the Middle English form sorege.^[13]
• c. 1225 – physical pain (obsolete by 1652).^[5]
• c. 1250 – lamentation, weeping.^[5]
• c. 1330 – in curses, sorrow on….^[5]
• before 1350 – Sorrow personified.^[5]
• 1573 – he that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.^[5]
• 1638 – a person who causes sorrow, in Milton.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Deep sadness or grief, especially after a loss or misfortune: The town shared the family's sorrow.
2. A cause of grief; a trouble or affliction: Her son's illness was the great sorrow of her life.
3. Regret or remorse for something one has done.
4. The outward expression of grief; mourning.

Verb

1. To feel or show sorrow; to grieve or mourn: They sorrowed over the loss of their home.
2. (literary) To grieve for; to lament.

Word family

• sorrower
• sorrowless
• sorrowful
• unsorrowing

Related words

• sorry
• sore
• grief
• woe

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.