Desolacioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The destruction and emptying of a land or town, leaving it ruined and abandoned ; the deep grief or forlorn misery felt by a person left without comfort
2. Archaic term for the ruin that leaves a region stripped and barren ; the sorrowful loneliness of a soul forsaken by others
3. A state of wasteland left by violence or neglect ; an inner anguish of isolation and sadness that comes from being forsaken

Etymology: Desolation has a lonely root. Its Latin source, "desolare," meant "to leave alone" or "to abandon," built from "de-," an intensifying prefix, and "solus," meaning "alone," the same root that gives English "solitary" and "sole." A desolate place was once one left empty by abandonment, and the sense of ruin came later. This spelling is a Middle English form, which came into English from Old French "desolacion," itself from Latin "desolatio." Its spelling and vowels shifted over the centuries, and the modern form lost the final "-oun" sound.