sorrow
UK[ˈsɒrəʊ]US[ˈsɑːroʊ]
n
A feeling of deep distress, sadness, or regret caused by loss, disappointment, or other misfortune.
v
To feel or express sorrow; to grieve.
Etymology
The word 'sorrow' has a direct and ancient lineage in the Germanic branch of languages. It descends from the Old English 'sorg', which is cognate with Old High German 'sorga', Old Norse 'sorg', and Gothic 'saúrga'. These all point back to a Proto-Germanic root 'surgō', carrying the core meaning of "care, worry, grief." This Germanic root is further traced to the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root 'swergh-', meaning "to worry, be sick, or suffer." The semantic journey is remarkably consistent: from the primal PIE sense of mental or physical affliction, it solidified in Proto-Germanic as a noun for a state of anxious grief, which Old English inherited and which has persisted with stable meaning into Modern English, denoting profound sadness.
Analysis
This is a simplex word of Old English origin. It is derived from the Old English noun 'sorg' and verb 'sorgian', meaning "grief, regret, trouble, care." The functional role is that of a base word, not productively built from separate, identifiable morphemes in modern English.
Examples
She felt immense sorrow at the news of her friend's passing.
The poem expresses the universal sorrow of lost love.
He sorrowed for years over the opportunities he had missed.