teary

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English teri,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English ter + -y, from the noun tear and the adjective suffix -y.^[5][6][2][4] Etymonline also traces it to Old English tēarig,^[3] which meant tearful or weeping, and also watering, of the eyes.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Covered with tears; tearful: about 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, where Criseyde hides her tery face in her arms.^[5][2] Chaucer used the word only once.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Lydgate used it about 1420 for "consisting of tears", a sense now rare.^[5][6] The main sense, "full of tears, tearful", is now colloquial,^[5][6] and it extended to "causing tears, sad".^[4][6] In Scottish and Dorset dialect teary meant tearful, also in the compound teary-eyed, which William Barnes used in his Dorset poems; a separate dialect teary of Shropshire and the south-west meant weak, frail, or tall and slender.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – covered with tears, in Chaucer.^[5][2]
• c. 1420 – consisting of tears, in Lydgate (now rare).^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Wet with tears or about to cry; tearful: His eyes grew teary as the train left.^[4][10][5]
2. Causing tears; sentimental or sad.^[4][6]
3. (rare) Consisting of tears, or of drops like tears.^[4][5]

Word family

• tearily
• teariness
• teary-eyed

Related words

• tear
• tearful

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins