Sunday Word: Lugubrious
Sunday Word: Lugubrious
lugubrious [loo-goo-bree-uhs, -gyoo-]
adjective:
mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner
(click to enlarge)
Examples:
The sole protagonist is yet another of Wächtler's lugubrious loners in exile from the realm of fantastical or folkloric creatures. This time around, it is a world-worn dragon with ratty locks and a straw hat who perches and broods or flaps morosely to and fro against a desolate backdrop of craggy wasteland and roiling skies. ( Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, From a World-Worn Dragon to a Shy Troll: Artist Peter Wächtler's Lugubrious Loners, Frieze, January 2024)
There's a kind of mopey cinema, plodding and lugubrious, that's often mistaken for artistic sensitivity in creating in-depth character studies and exploring important issues. (Eileen Jones, Review: 'My Policeman' Turns a Gripping Real-Life Gay Love Story Into a Dreary Film, The Wire, November 2022)
With similar insight, Mellow describes how, on unexpected occasions, the child would declaim a line from Richard III: "Stand back, my Lord, and let the coffin pass!" This, Mellow maintains, proves that the young Hawthorne "had a dramatic instinct for the lugubrious." ( Sara L Frankel, An Instinct for the Lugubrious, The Harvard Crimson, October 1980)
The dogs dashed on, but at the threshold suddenly stopped and snarled, and then, simultaneously lifting their noses, began to howl in most lugubrious fashion. (Bram Stoker, Dracula)
Billy sang a lugubrious song of many stanzas about a cowboy, the refrain of which was, "Bury me out on the lone pr-rairie." (Jack London, The Valley of the Moon)
A lugubrious quail doled forth a grating, dismal note at long but measured intervals, offending the ear and depressing the heart. (Charles Reade, It is Never Too Late to Mend)
Origin:
'expressing or characterized by sadness or mournfulness; doleful,' c. 1600, formerly also lugubrous, from -ous + Latin lugubris 'mournful, doleful, pertaining to mourning,' from lugere 'to mourn,' from PIE root leug- 'to break; to cause pain' (source also of Greek lygros 'mournful, sad,' Sanskrit rujati 'breaks, torments,' Lettish lauzit 'to break the heart') (Online Etymology Dictionary)
Lugubrious is the sole surviving English offspring of Latin lugēre, meaning 'to mourn.' Its closest kin, luctual, an adjective meaning 'sad' or 'sorrowful,' was put to rest centuries ago. (Merriam-Webster)
lugubrious [loo-goo-bree-uhs, -gyoo-]
adjective:
mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner
(click to enlarge)
Examples:
The sole protagonist is yet another of Wächtler's lugubrious loners in exile from the realm of fantastical or folkloric creatures. This time around, it is a world-worn dragon with ratty locks and a straw hat who perches and broods or flaps morosely to and fro against a desolate backdrop of craggy wasteland and roiling skies. ( Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, From a World-Worn Dragon to a Shy Troll: Artist Peter Wächtler's Lugubrious Loners, Frieze, January 2024)
There's a kind of mopey cinema, plodding and lugubrious, that's often mistaken for artistic sensitivity in creating in-depth character studies and exploring important issues. (Eileen Jones, Review: 'My Policeman' Turns a Gripping Real-Life Gay Love Story Into a Dreary Film, The Wire, November 2022)
With similar insight, Mellow describes how, on unexpected occasions, the child would declaim a line from Richard III: "Stand back, my Lord, and let the coffin pass!" This, Mellow maintains, proves that the young Hawthorne "had a dramatic instinct for the lugubrious." ( Sara L Frankel, An Instinct for the Lugubrious, The Harvard Crimson, October 1980)
The dogs dashed on, but at the threshold suddenly stopped and snarled, and then, simultaneously lifting their noses, began to howl in most lugubrious fashion. (Bram Stoker, Dracula)
Billy sang a lugubrious song of many stanzas about a cowboy, the refrain of which was, "Bury me out on the lone pr-rairie." (Jack London, The Valley of the Moon)
A lugubrious quail doled forth a grating, dismal note at long but measured intervals, offending the ear and depressing the heart. (Charles Reade, It is Never Too Late to Mend)
Origin:
'expressing or characterized by sadness or mournfulness; doleful,' c. 1600, formerly also lugubrous, from -ous + Latin lugubris 'mournful, doleful, pertaining to mourning,' from lugere 'to mourn,' from PIE root leug- 'to break; to cause pain' (source also of Greek lygros 'mournful, sad,' Sanskrit rujati 'breaks, torments,' Lettish lauzit 'to break the heart') (Online Etymology Dictionary)
Lugubrious is the sole surviving English offspring of Latin lugēre, meaning 'to mourn.' Its closest kin, luctual, an adjective meaning 'sad' or 'sorrowful,' was put to rest centuries ago. (Merriam-Webster)