核心畫面

A deep, quiet sadness that sits in you after a loss — heavy and slow, not sharp, and it stays.

失去以後留在身體裡的那個重量。它不像哭喊那樣爆出來,比較像坐在那裡,胸口沉沉的,時間過了還在。這個字帶的份量比 sa更多收起失去以後留在身體裡的那個重量。它不像哭喊那樣爆出來,比較像坐在那裡,胸口沉沉的,時間過了還在。這個字帶的份量比 sadness 重、比 grief 安靜——sadness 可能只是今天心情不好,sorrow 通常有原因,而且那個原因不會被一天治好。它偏書面、偏莊重,講出口的時候場合本身就是嚴肅的。

From the word’s history

From Old English sorg "care, anxiety, grief", from Proto-Germanic *surgō — the same root as German Sorge; the word has always named an inner weight, first worry and later deep sadness.

一種看法是:這個字從古英語 sorg 來(意思是掛心、憂慮、悲傷),再往上是原始日耳曼語 *surgō,跟德語的 Sorge、荷蘭語 zorg 同源。早期它偏「掛心、放不下」,後來重心移到失去之後的深沉悲傷——但「心裡壓著一件事」這個底層感覺一直在,也解釋了為什麼 sorrow 比較像持續的重量而不是一時的情緒。

Wiktionary entry for "sorrow" (Old English sorg < Proto-West Germanic *sorgu < Proto-Germanic *surgō, cognate with German Sorge), as supplied in the payload origin note

Two branches

心裡的重量

這一族是感覺本身:那個沉在心裡、因為失去而來的悲傷,以及把它表現出來的動作。

deep sadness · noun · C2

A very strong sad feeling, usually because someone has died or because something very bad has happened to you.

哀傷

造成悲傷的那件事

從感覺移到來源:同一個字反過來指「讓人心裡沉下去的那件事情」,於是可以數、可以列舉。

a sad event · noun · C2

An event or situation that makes you feel very sad.

傷心事

原始詞典資料5 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

Sorrowname

  • 1

    A surname.

sorrownoun/ˈsɒɹəʊ/

  • 1

    unhappiness, woe

    • But sorrow that is couch'd in seeming gladness Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.
    • The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment.
  • 2

    (usually in plural) An instance or cause of unhappiness.

    • Parting is such sweet sorrow.
    • She had nursed all the children, including Sandro, to whom she was devoted, and my husband was just as fond of her. His going away to America was a great sorrow to her, and she always kept the sacred light burning on a little altar for Sandro all the time of his long absence.

sorrowverb/ˈsɒɹəʊ/

  • 1

    To feel or express grief.

    • ‘Sorrow not, sir,’ says he, ‘like those without hope.’
    • When, as sometimes happens, a lad dies from the effect of the operation, he is buried secretly in the forest, and his sorrowing mother is told that the monster has a pig's stomach as well as a human stomach, and that unfortunately her son slipped into the wrong stomach.
  • 2

    To feel grief over; to mourn, regret.

    • It is impossible to make a man naturally blind, to conceive that he seeth not; impossible to make him desire to see, and sorrow his defect.

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。