What does dolesome mean?
Dolesome is an archaic English adjective meaning sorrowful or mournful. It has a strongly literary, old-fashioned tone, so it tends to appear in descriptions of grief, unhappy news, or solemn scenes rather than ordinary contemporary speech. In those contexts, it can characterize a person’s expression or voice, an event or message, or an atmosphere. Although its meaning is close to doleful, dolesome is the rarer and more archaic choice, and using it can add a deliberately elevated or antique flavor. The word is not normally used as a noun or verb, and it has no common modern inflectional or derived forms. Its historical interest lies in the way it links the idea of sorrow to dole, meaning grief, joined with the suffix -some, meaning full of or characterized by. Thus, dolesome conveys something characterized by sorrow. The word is useful today chiefly for reading older literature and for deliberately formal or poetic writing.
adjectiveArchaic and literary: sorrowful or mournful.
- Sorrowful or mournful.
"The minstrel sang a dolesome lament for the fallen king."
"She spoke in a dolesome voice as she delivered the news."
"The abandoned house had a dolesome atmosphere that unsettled the visitors."
A poetic survivor of the word for sorrow, dolesome gives modern writing an unmistakably old-fashioned air.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does dolesome come from?
Dolesome was formed from dole, in its sense “sorrow or grief,” and the suffix -some, meaning “full of” or “characterized by.” The grief sense of dole comes through Old French doel from Latin dolere, “to feel pain or grief,” and is the source of related forms such as doleful and dolorous.
How dolesome is actually used
Archaic and literary; chiefly found in older writing or in deliberately elevated, solemn, or poetic prose. It is much less usual than doleful in modern English.
Easily confused with dolesome
Dolesome is the rarer, older adjective for sorrowful or mournful, whereas doleful is the standard modern equivalent.