Word of the DayFriday, November 30, 2001
dolorous
\DOH-luh-ruhs\ , adjective:1.
Marked by, causing, or expressing grief or sorrow.
Quotes:
Climbing out on to a narrow ledge, we waving cheerily at the people passing by on the street below, until my mother was informed of our misdemeanour -- by a waitress wickedly known to great-aunt Mary, behind her table napkin, as Sourpuss for her perpetually dolorous expression -- and we were lured back inside.
-- Mary Varnham, "Voices of young and old are rarely heard", The Evening Post (Wellington, New Zealand), March 30, 1995
And at the centre of this intense display of devotion Carlo himself, bearing aloft the relic of the Holy Nail from the cathedral, shoeless and oblivious to his bleeding feet, walked amid a dolorous procession of penitents.
-- Helen Langdon, Caravaggio: A Life
Origin:
Dolorous derives from Latin dolor, "pain, grief, sorrow," from dolere, "to suffer pain, to grieve."
