different between dolorous vs dolent

English

Alternative forms

• dolourous (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English dolorous, from Old French dolerous (modern French douloureux), from Late Latin dol?r?sus (“painful”), from Latin dolor. Doublet of dolorose.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?l???s/, /?do?l???s/

Adjective

dolorous (comparative more dolorous, superlative most dolorous)

1. Solemnly or ponderously sad.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book 5, Canto 4:

     Through dolorous despaire, which she conceyved,

     Into the Sea her selfe did headlong throw,

     Thinking to have her griefe by death bereaved.

   • 1645, John Milton, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity", stanza 14:

     . . . Hell itself will pass away,

     And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.

   • 2001 June 24, Stefan Kanfer, "Author, Teacher, Witness," Time:

     As World War II came to a close, the gaunt and dolorous child was liberated at yet another death camp, Buchenwald.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English dolent, from Old French dolent, from Latin dol?ns, present participle of dole? (“to grieve”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d??l?nt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?do?l?nt/

Adjective

dolent (comparative more dolent, superlative most dolent)

1. (archaic) Sad, sorrowful.
   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night

     Poor wretch! who once hath paced that dolent city

     Shall pace it often, doomed beyond all pity,

     With horror ever deepening from the first.

   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 148:

     ‘Did you find them all, Uncle Van?’ she inquired, sighing, laying her dolent head on his shoulder.

Related terms

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin dol?ns, dol?ntem (“hurting, suffering”).

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /do?lent/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /du?len/

Adjective

dolent (feminine dolenta, masculine plural dolents, feminine plural dolentes)

1. (Valencia) ill
2. evil
3. bad

Verb

dolent

1. present participle of doldre

French

Etymology

From Middle French dolent, from Old French dolent, borrowed from Latin dol?ns, dol?ntem (“hurting, suffering”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?.l??/

Adjective

dolent (feminine singular dolente, masculine plural dolents, feminine plural dolentes)

1. (archaic) mournful

Related terms

• douloir
• douleur

Further reading

• “dolent” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German

Etymology

From Latin dolens.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [do?l?nt]
• Hyphenation: do?lent

Adjective

dolent (not comparable)

1. (medicine) painful

Declension

Latin

Verb

dolent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of dole?

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French dolent.

Adjective

dolent m (feminine singular dolente, masculine plural dolents, feminine plural dolentes)

1. sad

Descendants

• French: dolent

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dol?ns, dol?ntem (“hurting, suffering”).

Adjective

dolent m (oblique and nominative feminine singular dolent or dolente)

1. painful; causing suffering and pain

Declension

Related terms

• doloir
• dolor, dolur

Descendants

• ? English: dolent
• Middle French: dolent
  • French: dolent