sorry

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈsɒr.i/, US /ˈsɑːr.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sori (earlier sari), inherited from Old English sārig (“distressed, grieved, full of sorrow”),^[2][3][4] formed from sār (“pain, sore”), the source of sore, with the suffix -ig.^[2][5][6] Etymonline reconstructs Proto-Germanic *sairiga- (“painful”).^[3] Its cognates include Old Saxon sērag and Old High German sērag.^[4][7][3] The SOED and Etymonline note that the change and shortening of the vowel, from a to o, came by association with the unrelated word sorrow.^[4][3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pained at heart, distressed, full of grief: Old English sārig, about 725 in Beowulf,^[2] or about 888.^[8] Middle English sari appears in 1114.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that Old English sārig is not found in the physical sense of sore.^[3] Sorry for something is late Old English.^[3] “Repentant, remorseful” is from about 1200,^[3] and “causing distress, grievous” from before 1225.^[8] “Wretched, worthless, poor”, as in a sorry sight, is from about 1250.^[2][3] Word Origins traces the weakening of the sense from “full of grief” to “sad in sympathy”, then “full of regret”, and finally a simple apology by the mid-19th century;^[9] Etymonline finds sorry alone as an apology, short for I'm sorry, suggested by 1834.^[3] Sorry about that was popularized in the mid-1960s by the US television show Get Smart.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English sārig (Beowulf).^[2]
• 1114 – Middle English sari.^[2]
• c. 1200 – repentant.^[3]
• before 1225 – grievous.^[8]
• c. 1250 – wretched, worthless.^[2]
• 1834 – sorry! as an apology.^[3]
• mid-1960s – sorry about that.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Feeling sympathy, pity or regret.
2. Worthless, inferior or pitiful: a sorry excuse.
3. (archaic) Causing grief; grievous.

Interjection

1. Used to apologize, or to ask someone to repeat something.

Word family

• sorrily
• sorriness
• unsorry

Related words

• sorrow
• sorrowful
• sore

Usage notes

In dialect, sorry is also a familiar form of address to a man or boy, an alteration of sirrah, from the late 18th century.^[4][8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press