different between sorrowful vs afflictive

English

Etymology

From Middle English sorweful, from Old English sorhful, sorgful (“full of care; anxious; sorrowful”), from Proto-Germanic *surgafullaz (“full of care; anxious”), equivalent to sorrow +? -ful. Cognate with Old High German sorgfol (“careful; anxious”), Norwegian sorgfull (“sorrowful”), Icelandic sorgfullur (“lamentable”).

Pronunciation

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?s??o?f?l/, /?s???f?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s??o?f?l/, /?s???f?l/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s????f?l/, /?s???f?l/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?s????f?l/, /?s???f?l/
• Hyphenation: sor?row?ful

Adjective

sorrowful (comparative more sorrowful, superlative most sorrowful)

1. (of a person) exhibiting sorrow; dejected; distraught.
2. Producing sorrow; causing grief.

   sorrowful accident

   • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 23

     She threw her arms around the Lion's neck and kissed him, patting his big head tenderly. Then she kissed the Tin Woodman, who was weeping in a way most dangerous to his joints. But she hugged the soft, stuffed body of the Scarecrow in her arms instead of kissing his painted face, and found she was crying herself at this sorrowful parting from her loving comrades.

Synonyms

• mournful, lamentable, grievous
• See also Thesaurus:sad
• See also Thesaurus:lamentable

Translations

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

afflict +? -ive

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?kt?v

Adjective

afflictive (comparative more afflictive, superlative most afflictive)

1. That causes physical or mental pain.
   • 1716, Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 2nd edition edited by Samuel Johnson, London: J. Payne, 1756, Part I, p. 44,^[1]

     […] we consider not sufficiently the good of evils, nor fairly compute the mercies of PROVIDENCE in things afflictive at first hand.

   • 1718, Alexander Pope (translator), The Iliad of Homer, London: Bernard Lintot, Volume 4, Book 14, p. 96,^[2]

     All this from Jove’s afflictive Hand we bear:

     Who, far from Argos, wills our Ruin here.

   • 1718, Matthew Prior “Henry and Emma” in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 229,^[3]

     But canst Thou, tender Maid, canst Thou sustain

     Afflictive Want, or Hunger’s pressing Pain?

   • 1847, Anne Brontë (pseudonym Acton Bell), Agnes Grey, Chapter 3,^[4]

     In my childhood I could not imagine a more afflictive punishment than for my mother to refuse to kiss me at night: the very idea was terrible.

Derived terms

• afflictively

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.flik.tiv/
• Homophone: afflictives

Adjective

afflictive

1. feminine singular of afflictif