Where does “grief” come from?
Grief comes from Middle English greef, from Old French grief meaning heavy or serious, from Latin gravis meaning heavy, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European gʷréh₂us meaning heavy or weighty.
grief (English): Suffering, hardship; Pain of mind arising from...
Definitions
- Suffering, hardship; Pain of mind arising from...
Ancestry of “grief”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | greef | — |
| 2 | Old French | grief | pain; anguish; suffering; sad |
| 3 | Late Latin | grevis | — |
| 4 | Latin | gravis | heavy; troublesome, hard; grave, serious |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷréh₂us | heavy |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -us | Forms adjectives from Caland system roots |
Words derived from “grief”