English Explanatory Dictionary

dolour

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow.
  2. In economics and utilitarianism: a unit of pain used to theoretically weigh people's outcomes.

Pronunciation

/ˈdɒlə/ /ˈdəʊlə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dolour.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dolour2.wav /ˈdoʊlɚ/ En-us-dolour.oga

Word forms

dolour dolours dolor

Etymology

From Middle English dolour (“physical pain, agony, suffering; painful disease; anguish, grief, misery, sorrow; grieving for sins, contrition; hardship, misery, trouble; cause of grief or suffering, affliction”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman dolour, Old French dolour, dolor, dulur (“pain”) (modern French douleur (“pain; distress”)), from Latin dolor (“ache, hurt, pain; anguish, grief, sorrow; anger, indignation, resentment”), from doleō (“to hurt, suffer physical pain; to deplore, grieve, lament”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- (“to divide, split”)) + -or (suffix forming third-declension masculine abstract nouns). The English word is a doublet of dol.

Synonyms

infelicity joylessness sadness unhappiness unjoy dol

Antonyms

elation felicity happiness joy hedon util utile utilon

Related words

dol dole doloriferous dolorific dolorimeter doloroso dolorous dolorously dolorousness endolour undolorous pain
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