dolorous [ˈdɒlərəs] a.
1.) Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; doleful; dismal; as, a dolorous object; dolorous discourses.
2.) Occasioning pain or grief; painful (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary).
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French doloros, from Late Latin dolorosus, from dolor, pain, from dolare, to suffer, feel pain.
"As soon as I had heard those souls tormented,
I bowed my face, and so long held it down
Until the Poet said to me: 'What thinkest?'
When I made answer, I began: 'Alas!
How many pleasant thoughts, how much desire,
Conducted these unto the dolorous pass!'"
(Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (trans.), 1867)
(Les ombres de Francesca da Rimini et de Paolo Malatesta apparaissent à Dante et à Virgile, Ary Scheffer, 1835)
4 comments:
I usually see this word used in connection with Jesus.
What thinkest? Why does this make me giggle?
Dolor is pain in Spanish, and Dolores (pains) is a common name for a girl, which is an odd thing to call a child. It must be a Catholic thing.
Ahh, Latin. I'm pretty sure that only homeschoolers ever studied Latin...
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