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dolorous
adjective
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The Painful History of Dolorous
If you’ve ever studied a Romance language, you’ve likely run into words related to Latin dolor, meaning "pain" or "grief." Indeed, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian all refer to pain using descendants of dolor. English (which despite its many Latinate terms is categorized as a Germanic language) has dolor to thank for dolorous. When the word first appeared, it was linked to physical pain; as the British surgeon John Banister wrote in 1578, "No medicine may prevail … till the same dolorous tooth be … plucked up by the roots." The "causing pain" sense of dolorous coexisted with the "sorrowful" sense for centuries, but (to the dolor, perhaps, of some) its use is now rare.
Synonyms
Examples of dolorous in a Sentence
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dolorous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
15th century, in the meaning defined above
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Cite this Entry
“Dolorous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dolorous. Accessed 4 Nov. 2024.
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dolorous
adjectiveMedical Definition
dolorous
adjective
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