different between grief vs distress

English

Etymology

From Middle English greef, gref, from Old French grief (“grave, heavy, grievous, sad”), from Latin gravis (“heavy, grievous, sad”). Doublet of grave.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??i?f/
• Rhymes: -i?f

Noun

grief (countable and uncountable, plural griefs or grieves)

1. Suffering, hardship. [from early 13th c.]
2. Pain of mind arising from misfortune, significant personal loss, bereavement, misconduct of oneself or others, etc.; sorrow; sadness. [from early 14th c.]
3. (countable) Cause or instance of sorrow or pain; that which afflicts or distresses; trial.

Derived terms

• give someone grief

Translations

Verb

grief (third-person singular simple present griefs, present participle griefing, simple past and past participle griefed)

1. (online gaming) To deliberately harass and annoy or cause grief to other players of a game in order to interfere with their enjoyment of it; especially, to do this as one’s primary activity in the game. [from late 1990s]

Usage notes

• This verb is most commonly found in the gerund-participle griefing and the derived noun griefer.

Related terms

• grievance
• grieve
• grievous

Further reading

• grief on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• griefer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• grief in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• grief in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• grief at OneLook Dictionary Search

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch grief, from Old French grief, from Vulgar Latin *grevis, from Latin gravis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?rif/
• Hyphenation: grief
• Rhymes: -if

Noun

grief f (plural grieven, diminutive griefje n)

1. (chiefly in the plural) grievance, complaint, bone to pick, issue

Derived terms

• grieven

French

Etymology

From Old French grief, from Vulgar Latin grevis (influenced by its antonym, levis), from Latin gravis, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *g?réh?us. Doublet of grave.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??i.j?f/

Adjective

grief (feminine singular griève, masculine plural griefs, feminine plural grièves)

1. (archaic, literary) grievous

Derived terms

• grièvement

Noun

grief m (plural griefs)

1. complaint
2. grief
3. grievance (formal complaint filed with an authority)

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• figer

Ladin

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *grevis, from Latin gravis.

Adjective

grief m (feminine singular grieva, masculine plural griefs, feminine plural grieves)

1. arduous
2. difficult
3. steep

Old French

Alternative forms

• gref (typically Anglo-Norman)

Etymology

Probably from the verb grever, or from Vulgar Latin grevis (influenced by its antonym, levis), from Latin gravis.

Noun

grief m (oblique plural griés, nominative singular griés, nominative plural grief)

1. pain; anguish; suffering

Descendants

• French: grief
• ? Middle Dutch: grief
  • Dutch: grief
• ? Middle English: greef, gref
  • English: grief

Adjective

grief m (oblique and nominative feminine singular grieve)

1. sad

Descendants

• French: grief (archaic, literary)

English

Etymology

The verb is from Middle English distressen, from Old French destrecier (“to restrain, constrain, put in straits, afflict, distress”); compare French détresse. Ultimately from Medieval Latin as if *districtiare, an assumed frequentative form of Latin distringere (“to pull asunder, stretch out”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringere (“to draw tight, strain”).

The noun is from Middle English distresse, from Old French destrece, ultimately also from Latin distringere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??st??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Noun

distress (countable and uncountable, plural distresses)

1. (Cause of) discomfort.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:distress.
2. Serious danger.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:distress.
3. (medicine) An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt.
4. (law) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
5. (law) The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.

   • If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle.

   • The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for.

Derived terms

• distress signal

Antonyms

• (maladaptive stress): eustress

Related terms

• distrain
• district

Translations

Verb

distress (third-person singular simple present distresses, present participle distressing, simple past and past participle distressed)

1. To cause strain or anxiety to someone.

   Synonyms: anguish, harrow, trouble, vex, torment, tantalize, tantalise, martyr
2. (law) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.

   Synonym: distrain
3. To treat a new object to give it an appearance of age.

   Synonyms: age, antique, patinate

Translations

Further reading

• distress in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• distress in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• distress at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• disserts