Soulrending

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Causing intense emotional pain or distress that seems to pierce the deepest parts of one's being
2. Deeply wounding to one's emotional core or spiritual essence in a way that causes profound anguish
3. Piercing the innermost emotional depths with such severity that it creates overwhelming sorrow and spiritual devastation

Etymology: "Soulrending" is a plain compound: "soul" joined to "rending," the present participle of "rend," meaning to tear apart or split by force. Put together, the word describes something that tears at the soul in the way a physical force tears cloth or rock. The image behind it is a violent one. "Rend" has long been used of tearing garments, especially in expressions of grief, and the metaphor extends that action inward, so that the injury is imagined as happening to the innermost self rather than to the body. Because the two parts are both ordinary English words, the compound needs no special explanation: it was formed by joining them, and its meaning follows directly from the parts.

Synonyms: heartbreaking, anguishing, painful, agonizing, distressing

Antonyms: uplifting, comforting