sorry

Meanings

1. 1
   intj

   Said to apologize or to politely get someone's attention.

   Sorry! I didn't see that you were on the phone.

2. 2
   adj

   Feeling regret or apology for something you have done.

   I am sorry I stepped on your toes. It was an accident.

3. 3
   adj

   Feeling sadness or sympathy for someone.

   I feel sorry for you about your exam results.

4. 4
   adj

   Very bad, poor, or in a pitiful state.

   The storm left his garden in a sorry state.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Sorry is an Old English word from sore, which originally meant “causing intense pain” or “grievous.” Sorry first meant pained, distressed, or full of grief; its meaning gradually weakened to sympathetic sadness and regret, and by the mid-19th century it was used as an expression of apology.

From Middle English sory, from Old English sāriġ (“feeling or expressing grief, sorry, grieved, sorrowful, sad, mournful, bitter”), from Proto-West Germanic *sairag, from Proto-Germanic *sairagaz (“sad”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂yro (“hard, rough, painful”). Cognate with Scots sairie (“sad, grieved”), Saterland Frisian seerich (“sore, inflamed”), West Frisian searich (“sad, sorry”), Low German serig (“sick, scabby”), German dialectal sehrig (“sore, sad, painful”), Swedish sårig. By surface analysis, sor(e) + -y. Unrelated to sorrow despite the similarity in form and meaning.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary