grief

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English greef, gref, from Old French grief (“grave, heavy, grievous, sad”), from Latin gravis (“heavy, grievous, sad”). Doublet of grave.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ɡɹiːf/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːf

Noun

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grief (countable and uncountable, plural griefs or grieves)

  1. Suffering, hardship. [from early 13th c.]
    The neighbour's teenage give me grief every time they see me.
  2. Emotional pain, generally arising from misfortune, significant personal loss, bereavement, misconduct of oneself or others, etc.; sorrow; sadness. [from early 14th c.]
    She was worn out from so much grief.
    The betrayal caused Jeff grief.
    • 1576, George Whetstone, “The Ortchard of Repentance: […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, […], London: […] [H. Middleton] for Robert Waley, →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of Regard, […] (Illustrations of Early English Poetry; vol. 2, no. 2), London: Privately printed, [1867?], →OCLC, page 291:
      And ſure, although it was invented to eaſe his mynde of griefe, there be a number of caveats therein to forewarne other young gentlemen to foreſtand with good government their folowing yl fortunes; […]
  3. (countable) Cause or instance of sorrow or pain; that which afflicts or distresses; trial.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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grief (third-person singular simple present griefs, present participle griefing, simple past and past participle griefed)

  1. (online gaming) To deliberately harass and annoy or cause grief to other players of a game in order to interfere with their enjoyment of it; especially, to do this as one’s primary activity in the game, and especially by exploiting game mechanics without using cheats to do so. [from late 1990s]
    • 2008 January 18, Julian Dibbell, “Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World”, in Wired‎[1]:
      While ban and his pals stand squarely in this tradition, they also stand for something new: the rise of organized griefing, grounded in online message-board communities and thick with in-jokes, code words, taboos, and an increasingly articulate sense of purpose. No longer just an isolated pathology, griefing has developed a full-fledged culture.

Usage notes

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  • This verb is most commonly found in the gerund-participle griefing and the derived noun griefer.
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Further reading

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Dutch

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Etymology

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From Middle Dutch grief, from Old French grief, from Early Medieval Latin grevem, alteration of Latin gravem.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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grief f (plural grieven, diminutive griefje n)

  1. (chiefly in the plural) grievance, complaint, bone to pick, issue

Derived terms

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French

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old French grief, from Early Medieval Latin grevem, alteration of Latin gravem. Doublet of grave, a borrowing from Latin.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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grief (feminine griève, masculine plural griefs, feminine plural grièves)

  1. (archaic, literary) grievous

Derived terms

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Noun

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grief m (plural griefs)

  1. complaint
  2. grief
  3. grievance (formal complaint filed with an authority)

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Ladin

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Etymology

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From Early Medieval Latin grevem, alteration of Latin gravem.

Adjective

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grief m (feminine singular grieva, masculine plural griefs, feminine plural grieves)

  1. arduous
  2. difficult
  3. steep

Old French

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Alternative forms

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  • gref (typically Anglo-Norman)

Etymology

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From Early Medieval Latin grevem, alteration of Latin gravem.

Noun

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grief oblique singular, m (oblique plural griés, nominative singular griés, nominative plural grief)

  1. pain; anguish; suffering

Descendants

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  • French: grief
  • → Middle Dutch: grief
  • → Middle English: greef, gref

Adjective

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grief m (oblique and nominative feminine singular grieve)

  1. sad
    • late 12th century, anonymous author, “La Folie de Tristan d'Oxford”, in Le Roman de Tristan, Champion Classiques edition, →ISBN, page 386, line 552:
      Mult ai le quer gref e marri.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

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  • French: grief (archaic, literary)
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