Sadnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling for the unhappy emotional state of grief, low spirits, or melancholy
2. A dated form of the melancholy feeling of sorrow, unhappiness, or sorrowful gloom
3. An old-fashioned term for the heavy-hearted condition of mourning, dejection, or distress

Etymology: "Sadnesse" is a Middle English spelling of "sadness," and the word once meant something close to the opposite of gloom. Its root, Old English "sæd," meant "sated" or "full," as in having had enough. That sense is shared with Latin "satis," "enough," which is why "sad" and "satisfy" are distant relatives. The word's earlier senses were "steadfast," "firm," or "serious," and sorrow came later. The suffix is the ordinary Old English "-nes," which turns an adjective into a noun of state or quality, as in "darkness" or "goodness." Middle English writers often added a final "e" to nouns like this, which is why this spelling appears in texts from the period, and it dropped away as spelling became standardized in the following centuries.