Contristate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Making someone feel deep sadness or grief, filling them with sorrow and gloom
2. Causing a person to become sorrowful, plunging them into melancholy and heaviness of spirit
3. Bringing sorrow or distress upon someone, leaving them downcast and grieved in heart

Etymology: "Contristate" entered English in 1616, borrowed directly from the Latin "contristatus", the past participle of "contristare", meaning "to sadden." The Latin verb is built from "con-", an intensifying prefix, and "tristis", "sad," so the word is essentially an intensified form of sadness with a Latin pedigree. English has the same root in a near doublet: "contrist," which is an older, parallel form of the same Latin verb. The English verb itself is a straightforward formation: the Latin stem "contrist-" plus the verb-forming suffix "-ate," which English took over from Latin verbs of the same type, such as "agitate" and "illustrate." Because the word arrived as a learned borrowing rather than through everyday speech, it has stayed a formal, literary term, suited to a tone of solemn gloom rather than casual complaint.

Synonyms: sadden, distress, grieve

Antonyms: gladden, cheer, comfort