suffering

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English suffring, from the gerund of suffren, and the adjective is the same Middle English form from its present participle.^[2] Both are formed in English: the noun from English suffer + -ing, and the adjective with the participial suffix -ing.^[3][4][5] The verb suffer is from Anglo-Norman suffrir, from Old French sofrir,^[3][6][7] from Vulgar Latin *sufferiō,^[3][6][5] a form of Latin sufferō (“to bear, undergo, endure”), which is sub- (“up, under”) and ferō (“to carry, bear”),^[3][6][5] from Proto-Indo-European *bher- (“to carry”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Patient endurance, before 1340, in Rolle's Psalter, where the adjective "patient, submissive" also first appears;^[3] the sense "bearing of pain or distress" follows about 1340, in Rolle's prose.^[3] Etymonline likewise dates the noun to the mid-14th century,^[6] and Dictionary.com to 1300–50.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first meaning, "patient endurance", did not outlast the 14th century as a noun (compare long-suffering),^[3][4] while the sense of undergoing pain or punishment took over.^[3][6] It was also said of the pain itself: Etymonline finds "a painful condition, pain felt" in the late 14th century, and the OED's quotation is from Chaucer's Complaint of Venus.^[6][3] Chaucer uses the noun five times.^[8] Etymonline notes that the verb's history is bound up with the story of Christ's Passion and with martyrs' tales,^[6] and a later religious use followed: Puritans wrote of the suffering saint from 1661,^[3] and in the Society of Friends the plural named the hardships of those distrained upon for tithes, with a Meeting for Sufferings set up to investigate and relieve them.^[3][4] The word could also mean permission or tolerance, like sufferance, from about 1460 to 1637.^[3] Johnson (1755) gives only "pain suffered".^[9] As an exclamation, suffering cats! and suffering Moses date from 1869 in Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad on.^[3][4] The adjective's rare sense "ill, indisposed" (1885) is modelled on French souffrant.^[3][2]

Timeline

• before 1340 – patient endurance (obsolete by 1382); adjective, patient, submissive (obsolete by 1694).^[3]
• c. 1340 – the bearing or undergoing of pain or distress.^[3]
• 1398 – adjective, passive (obsolete by 1792).^[3]
• c. 1450 – a painful condition, pain suffered.^[3] Etymonline dates this sense to the late 14th century.^[6]
• c. 1460 – permission, tolerance (obsolete by 1637).^[3]
• 1609 – plural or particular, an instance of pain or hardship; adjective, that suffers pain or distress.^[3]
• 1651 – the suffering of death, execution, martyrdom (obsolete by 1660).^[3]
• 1661 – among Quakers, the hardships of those distrained upon for tithes; adjective, in suffering saint.^[3]
• 1805 – the incurring of loss (rare).^[3]
• 1869 – exclamation, suffering cats!.^[3]
• 1885 – adjective, ill, indisposed (rare).^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of enduring pain, distress or loss: The new drug eased the patient's suffering.^[10][2][3]
2. A pain or hardship endured, often in the plural: the sufferings of the refugees.^[10][2][3]
3. (Society of Friends) sufferings: hardships of members distrained upon for tithes.^[3][4]
4. (obsolete, 1340–1382) Patient endurance; sufferance.^[3][4]

Adjective

1. That suffers or is marked by pain or distress: a suffering child.^[2][3][4]
2. Ill or sick; rare.^[2][3]
3. In exclamations of surprise or annoyance: suffering cats!^[3][4]
4. (obsolete, 1340–1694) Patient, submissive.^[3][4]

Word family

• sufferingly
• unsuffering
• long-suffering

Related words

• suffer
• sufferance

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins