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woebegone

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 28 June 2026
A man with a woebegone expression (adjective sense 2.1) on his face.

Etymology

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    From Middle English wo-bigon, wo-begon (“(adjective) deeply affected by woe, distressed, sorrowful, wretched; affected by physical impairment or pain; tired, weary; abominable, cursed; (noun) unfortunate person, wretch”),[1] from wo (“distress, misery, woe; physical pain or suffering; etc.”)[2] + bigon (the past participle form of bigon (“of a state: to come upon or overtake (someone), beset, overwhelm, bego; of a person: to be overwhelmed by grief, etc.”)):[3][4]

    By surface analysis, woe +‎ begone (the past participle form of bego (“(obsolete) to affect”)).

    Noun sense 1 (“person who is deeply affected or overwhelmed by suffering or trouble, and so filled with woe”) became obsolete after the 14th or 15th century, and was only revived in the 19th century.[4]

    Pronunciation

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    Adjective

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    woebegone (comparative more woebegone, superlative most woebegone)

    1. Of a person: deeply affected or overwhelmed by suffering or trouble, and so filled with woe (“great distress or sadness”); (loosely) forlorn, sad, unhappy.
      Synonyms: lamentable; see also Thesaurus:sad
    2. (by extension)
      2. Of a person or thing: having a distressed, miserable, or sad appearance.
        (of a thing): Synonyms: derelict, dilapidated, godforsaken, ramshackle, rundown, tumbledown
        • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Monseigneur s’ Amuse”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 84:
          Pen and Miss Bolton were hard by listening to the same concert, and the latter remarked, and Pen laughed at Mr. Foker's wo-begone face. Fanny asked what it was that made that odd-looking little man so dismal? "I think he is crossed in love!" Pen said.
        • 1862, George Augustus Sala, “About Shrimpington”, in Accepted Addresses, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 153:
          I now went down to have a look at the "port." It was the most woebegone excavation, full of mud and fishy refuse, you ever saw.
        • 1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 4, in On the Road, London: Penguin Books, published 1976, →ISBN, part 1, page 29:
          When he was finished, as such, he was wringing wet, and now he had to edge and shimmy his way back, and with a most woebegone look, and everybody laughing, except the sad blond boy, and the Minnesotans roaring in the cab.
        • 1966, Helen MacInnes, chapter 6, in The Double Image, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, →OCLC, page 80:
          "[T]his café is really on the losing end of this street." It was almost as woebegone in sunshine as it had been in the rain.
      3. Of a thing: in a deplorable state.

    Derived terms

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    Translations

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    Noun

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    woebegone (plural woebegones)

    2. A person who is deeply affected or overwhelmed by suffering or trouble, and so filled with woe.
      Near-synonym: (chiefly US, informal) sad sack
      • 1890 April 15, “Oakland’s doom sealers. Camped out on the hills waiting for the destruction that did not come.”, in The Sun, volume LVII, number 227, New York, N.Y.: [Moses Yale Beach], →OCLC, page 2, column 3:
        According to the prophecy of Mrs. [Maria] Woodworth, George Erickson and several other revivalists, who created considerable excitement in Oakland some time ago, this was the day on which San Francisco and Oakland were to be destroyed by earthquake and a tidal wave, and the cities of Chicago and Milwaukee were also to suffer the same calamity. […] All the weakminded and ‘locoed’ people in Oakland seemed to get the craze and from dark until midnight the main street was a pandemonium of salvation brass-bands, corner preachers, delirious doom sealers, and fleeing ‘woebegones’ with their torches. […] I see by despatches in The Sun that some of them have sold their property at low figures, […] but if I’m not much mistaken, the woebegones will come back and reclaim their property, […]
      • 1917, Maurice Hewlett, “Life in Death”, in The Loving History of Peridore & Paravail, London; Glasgow: W[illiam] Collins Sons & Co., →OCLC, stanza 20, page 105:
        Two woebegones they chanced to meet, / With hungry eyes, as if despair / Like an old spider sat in there / And slow thereof did drink and eat; […]
      • 1988, Jonathan Havard, chapter 3, in Coming of Age, London: William Heinemann, →ISBN, page 25:
        How many wingeing woebegones have you got there for me this morning?
      • 2014, Robin Jarvis, chapter 25, in Fighting Pax (Dancing Jax; 3), London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 482:
        Those woebegones will seek to make an end of it and, before sunrise, there won't be very many people left in the world at all.

    Translations

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    References

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    1. ^ “wō-bigōn, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
    2. ^ “wō, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
    3. ^ “bigōn, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
    4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 “woebegone, adj. and n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2026; “woebegone, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
    5. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “wá”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1147, column 1.
    6. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “be-gán”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, pages 77–78, column 1.
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