My Word of the Day

Wednesday March 10, 2010

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dolorous [DOH-luh-ruhs]

adjective

1. Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; dismal; doleful.

• The darkly brooding sky that hangs over much of "The Ghost Writer," the latest from Roman Polanski, suggests that all is grim and gray and perhaps even for naught. But this high-grade pulp entertainment is too delectably amusing and self-amused, and far too aware of its own outrageous conceits to sustain such a dolorous verdict.
  Manohla Dargis, "Writer for Hire Is a Wanted Man", New York Times, Feb 19, 2010
• This fluent, furious section is the book's best. Switching to the allegedly dolorous effect of positive thinking on business, Ms Ehrenreich is less convincing. She reminds us that business has not always been linked to optimism. Max Weber traced capitalism's roots to Protestantism, which required hard work and deferred gratification.
  Michael Skapinker, "Positive thinking is still key to prosperity", Financial Times, Jan 19, 2010
• With much preliminary clanking of chains, a most dolorous groaning and creaking of the strange vehicle, a shudder and jar, the train is in motion, and slowly proceeding through densely wooded and wild country,--a coal and lumber district, where only an occasional log house relieves the monotony of the scene,--log huts which look as if they have strayed away from the far South and dropped down in this wilderness.
  Eliza Chase Over the Border: Acadia, the Home of "Evangeline" (1884)

Origin of the Word

Dolorous, approximately 1400, derives from Old French doloros, from Late Latin dolorosus, from Latin dolor "pain, grief."