Grievous

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈɡɹiː.vəs/

Definitions

1. Causing great pain, suffering, or distress; extremely serious or severe in nature
2. Producing significant sorrow, hardship, or trouble
3. marked by an exceptionally serious or harsh nature

Etymology: "Grievous" is a word that started out as a heavy physical burden. Its Latin ancestor "gravō" meant "to burden," and it came from the same root as "gravis," meaning "heavy," which also gave English "grave." Through Old French "grever," the idea of weighing something down passed into Anglo-Norman and then Middle English, where the form "grevous" took shape in the 13th century. The modern sense of causing severe suffering grew out of that weight-bearing idea. Something that presses down hard on a person, whether a load, an injury, or a wrong, is grievous because it is heavy to bear. The spelling later settled into "grievous" with the "-ie-" form, which made the word look more like its relative "grief," a link the word's structure reflects: it is "grief" with the adjective ending "-ous" added.

Synonyms: serious, severe, tragic

Antonyms: light, insignificant