Lovelornness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The feeling of intense sadness stemming from a lack of returned affection is often deeply impactful
2. A state of experiencing unreturned love and emotional pain associated with it
3. The condition of feeling deep sorrow due to affection that is not mutual

Etymology: "Lovelornness" is simply "lovelorn" with the suffix "-ness" attached, the same ending that turns "happy" into "happiness" or "kind" into "kindness." The suffix comes from Old English "-nes," a noun-forming ending that English has used freely for centuries to turn adjectives into names for states or qualities. The base word, "lovelorn," is the more colorful part. It is a compound of "love" and "lorn," and "lorn" is an old English word meaning abandoned, forsaken, or left desolate, a sense that survives mainly in "forlorn." So "lovelorn" describes someone who has been left behind by love, and "lovelornness" names the condition of being in that state. The result is a word that sounds archaic but is built from ordinary English pieces, which makes it a useful example of how English can coin a noun for a feeling by adding one ending to an adjective.