yearnful

English

Etymology

From Middle English yernful, from Old English ġiernful (“desirous, eager, zealous, diligent, anxious”), equivalent to yearn +‎ -ful.

Adjective

yearnful (comparative more yearnful, superlative most yearnful)

1. Filled with yearning; desirous; mournful; distressing.
   • 1570, Richard Edwards, “Damon and Pithias”, in A select collection of old English plays, Volume 4, page 43:

     So now lend me thy yearnful tunes to utter my sorrow.

   • 1886, Jerome K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow‎^[1]:

     Ah! they were grand days, those deep, full days, when our coming life, like an unseen organ, pealed strange, yearnful music in our ears, and our young blood cried out like a war-horse for the battle.

   • 1919, Albert Payson Terhune, “The Strike”, in O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919‎^[2]:

     I am yearnful to know who was the unhappy person the wicked general threatened.

Usage notes

• This term was once widely and disapprovingly attributed to the poet John Keats.
  • 1900, Rupert Hughes, Contemporary American Composers‎^[3]:

    It abounded in emotion, and was--to use the impossible word Keats coined--"yearnful."

  • 1902, Leon Mead, Word-coinage, page 19:

    Men of genius have been guilty of some queer word-coinages. Keats coined the impossible word yearnful; but this was not his gravest offense.

  • 1903, Rupert Hughes, The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 1‎^[4]:

    This is the last of these letters to which one could apply so fitly the barbarous word "yearnful," once coined by Keats.

Derived terms

• yearnfully
• yearnfulness