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.

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.

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