Drerynesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a state of sadness, gloom, or sorrowful weariness of spirit, as found in Middle English writing
2. The melancholy and heaviness of heart that a person feels when suffering grief or despair, used in older English texts
3. A gloomy sorrow or dejected mood, recorded in medieval English literature to describe a heavy and mournful state of mind

Etymology: Before it described gloom, the root of this word meant blood. Old English "drēorig" meant "bloody" or "gory," built on "drēor," blood or gore. Over time the sense moved from the violence that caused bloodshed to the sorrow that followed it, and "drery" came to mean dismal, cheerless, or mournful. Drerynesse is that adjective with the suffix "-nesse," the Middle English form of modern "-ness," which turns an adjective into a noun for a state or quality. The noun names the condition of being drery: a heavy, sorrowful gloom settling over a person or place. Modern English keeps the same structure in "dreariness."