Regret

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈɡɹɛt/

Definitions

1. A feeling of sadness or disappointment about something you did or failed to do in the past
2. A profound emotional response involving sadness and disappointment regarding past choices or missed chances, often linked with a desire for different outcomes
3. A complex emotional state characterized by sorrow and disappointment over past actions or inactions, often accompanied by a wish for different results

Etymology: The verb's roots are in weeping, not in missing something. In Old French, "regreter" meant to lament or mourn, built from the intensive prefix "re-" and a Frankish verb "grātan," meaning to weep. That Germanic stem is the same one behind Old English "grǣtan," which meant "to weep" and, in its other form, "to greet." The two words were not as far apart as they now seem: greeting someone once involved a sound of grief or lament, and the modern sense of wishing well was a later development. Middle English borrowed the Old French verb as "regretten," and for centuries it carried the sense of mourning a loss, especially a death. The idea of feeling sorry about one's own past actions, which is the meaning most readers know, grew out of that lament. Mourning what is gone and wishing you had acted differently are close emotional cousins, and the word moved from one to the other. The noun followed the verb, so the everyday sense of sadness over a mistake is the newer shape of an older grief.

Synonyms: remorse, sorrow, repentance, contrition, lament

Antonyms: satisfaction, contentment, happiness, joy, pleasure