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grief

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ɡɹiːf/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːf

Noun

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grief (countable and uncountable, plural griefs or grieves)

  1. Suffering, hardship. [from early 13th c.]
    Synonyms: difficulty, trouble; see also Thesaurus:distress
    The neighbour's teenagers give me grief every time they see me.
  2. Emotional pain, generally arising from misfortune, significant personal loss, bereavement, misconduct of oneself or others, etc.; sorrow; sadness. [from early 14th c.]
    Synonyms: dejection, misery; see also Thesaurus:sadness
    She was worn out from so much grief.
    The betrayal caused Jeff grief.
    • 1576, George Whetstone, “The Ortchard of Repentance: […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, […], London: […] [H. Middleton] for Robert Waley, →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of Regard, […] (Illustrations of Early English Poetry; vol. 2, no. 2), London: Privately printed, [1867?], →OCLC, page 291:
      And ſure, although it was invented to eaſe his mynde of griefe, there be a number of caveats therein to forewarne other young gentlemen to foreſtand with good government their folowing yl fortunes; […]
  3. (countable) A cause or instance of sorrow or pain; that which afflicts or distresses; a trial.
    Synonyms: hardship, sorrow; see also Thesaurus:woe

Usage notes

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  • grief, bereavement, mourning: These three words can describe the aftermath of a death. Bereavement refers to the fact of having experienced the death of a close figure, both the event of the death and the practical and emotional experiences that occur in the aftermath. Grief refers to the painful emotions that follow a death, and the experience of dealing with those emotions (grieving process). Mourning can refer to experiencing grief, but also refers to being in a social state that acknowledges the death, which may include practising rituals or customs related to death. Grief and mourning, especially the former, can also refer to losses other than death, but bereavement rarely does.
    He was bereaved ― He had experienced the loss of a loved one.
    He was grieving ― He was experiencing and/or working through the pain of suffering that loss.
    He was (in) mourning ― He was experiencing emotional grief, and/or he was in a social state of bereavement, possibly engaging in customs or rituals connected with it.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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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, and especially by exploiting game mechanics without using cheats to do so, often through acts of destruction or vandalism. [from late 1990s]
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pester, Thesaurus:vex
    • 2008 January 18, Julian Dibbell, “Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World”, in Wired‎[1]:
      While ban and his pals stand squarely in this tradition, they also stand for something new: the rise of organized griefing, grounded in online message-board communities and thick with in-jokes, code words, taboos, and an increasingly articulate sense of purpose. No longer just an isolated pathology, griefing has developed a full-fledged culture.

Usage notes

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

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Dutch

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Etymology

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From Middle Dutch grief, from Old French grief, from Early Medieval Latin grevem, alteration of Latin gravem.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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grief f (plural grieven, diminutive griefje n)

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

Derived terms

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French

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old French grief, from Early Medieval Latin grevem, alteration of Latin gravem. Doublet of grave, a borrowing from Latin.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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

  1. (archaic, literary) grievous

Derived terms

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Noun

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grief m (plural griefs)

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

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Ladin

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Etymology

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From Early Medieval Latin grevem, alteration of Latin gravem.

Adjective

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

  1. arduous
  2. difficult
  3. steep

Old French

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Alternative forms

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  • gref (typically Anglo-Norman)

Etymology

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From Early Medieval Latin grevem, alteration of Latin gravem.

Noun

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

  1. pain; anguish; suffering

Descendants

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

Adjective

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grief m (oblique and nominative feminine singular grieve)

  1. sad
    • late 12th century, anonymous author, “La Folie de Tristan d'Oxford”, in Le Roman de Tristan, Champion Classiques edition, →ISBN, page 386, line 552:
      Mult ai le quer gref e marri.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

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  • French: grief (archaic, literary)
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