sad English · revision 3033

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=before 1000|origins=ine-pro *sā-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /sæd/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|sad]], [[inh|ang|sæd|t=sated, full, weary of]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) from [[gem-pro|*sadaz|alt=*sathaz]],^(Etymonline) the source also of Old Saxon sad, Dutch zat, Old High German sat (German satt), Old Norse saðr and Gothic saþs, all “sated”.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) Outside Germanic it is related to Latin satis “enough” and satur “sated”, Old Irish sāith “satiety”, Greek hádēn “to satiety” and Lithuanian sotùs “sated”,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) from [[ine-pro|*sā-|t=to satisfy]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Having had one's fill, sated, weary or tired of something: before 1000.^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988) Barnhart's first Middle English example is in Layamon's ''Brut'', probably before 1200.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Middle English and early Modern English the main senses were “settled, firm, steadfast” (about 1315), “strong” and “serious, grave” (about 1375), and “solid, dense”; these are obsolete except in dialect.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)^(Hoad 1986) The modern sense “sorrowful, unhappy” is evident by about 1300.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) It may have come through the idea of being “heavy” and so “weary”, or through “steadfast” and “serious” to “grave”.^(Etymonline) A parallel is ''fed up'', of being unhappy through being too full of something.^(Cresswell 2021) In this sense it replaced Old English unrot, the negative of rot “cheerful”.^(Etymonline) “Expressing sorrow” is from the mid-14th century,^(Etymonline) “dark-coloured” from the 16th century,^(Hoad 1986) and of bread or pastry, “heavy, not risen”, from the 17th.^(Hoad 1986) “Very bad, deplorable” is from the 1690s, often jocular,^(Etymonline) and the slang sense “pathetic, inferior” from 1899.^(Etymonline) ''Sad sack'' is from the 1920s, popularised in the Second World War.^(Etymonline) In dialect, ''sad bread'' is bread that has not risen.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 1000 – sated, weary of.^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1300 – sorrowful.^(Etymonline)

+ * c. 1315 – firm, steadfast.^(OED 1989)

+ * mid-14th century – expressing sorrow.^(Etymonline)

+ * 16th century – dark-coloured.^(Hoad 1986)

+ * 17th century – of bread, heavy.^(Hoad 1986)

+ * 1690s – deplorable, very bad.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1899 – pathetic, inferior.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1920s – ''sad sack''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Feeling or showing [[sorrow]] or unhappiness.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # Causing sorrow or gloom; [[depressing]]: ''sad news''.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # Regrettable, [[deplorable]]: ''a sad state of affairs''.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # ''(informal)'' Pathetic or inadequate.^(Collins 2023)^(Etymonline)

+ # Of a colour, dark or [[somber|alt=sombre]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[sadly]]

+ * [[sadness]]

+ * [[oversad]]

+ * [[sadiron]]

+ * [[sad-faced]]

+ * [[unsad]]

+ * [[sad sack]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[sadden]]

+ * [[satisfy]]

+ * [[satiate]]

+ * [[satire]]

+ * [[saturate]]

+ * [[sate]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Sad'' is the most general of a group of words for unhappiness that includes ''melancholy'', ''sorrowful'', ''doleful'' and ''woebegone''.^(AHD)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}