affliction | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

30 entries found.

c. 1300, affliccioun, "misery, sorrow, pain, distress" (originally especially "self-inflicted pain, self-mortification, religious asceticism"), from Old French afliction "act of humility, humiliation, mortification, punishment" (11c.) and directly from Latin afflictionem (nominative afflictio), noun of action from past-participle stem of affligere "to dash down, overthrow," from ad "to" (see ad-) + fligere (past participle flictus) "to strike" (see afflict). Meaning "a cause of constant pain or sorrow" is from 1590s.

"I know, O Lord [says the Psalmist] that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me;" the furnace of affliction being meant but to refine us from our earthly drossiness, and soften us for the impression of Gods own stamp and image. [Robert Boyle, "Seraphic Love," 1663]

tribulation (n.)

"a state of affliction or oppression, suffering, distress," c. 1200, from Old French tribulacion (12c.), from Church Latin tribulationem (nominative tribulatio) "distress, trouble, affliction," noun of action from past-participle stem of tribulare "to oppress, afflict," a figurative use by Christian writers of Latin tribulare "to press," also possibly "to thresh out grain," from tribulum "threshing sledge," from stem of terere "to rub" (from PIE root *tere- (1) "to rub, turn") + -bulum, suffix forming names of tools.

heaviness (n.)

Old English hefigness "state of being heavy, weight; burden, affliction; dullness, torpor;" see heavy (adj.) + -ness. Chaucer has heavity for "sadness."

sufferance (n.)

c. 1300, "enduring of hardship, affliction, etc.," also "allowance of wrongdoing," from Old French suffrance, from Late Latin sufferentia, from sufferens, present participle of sufferre "to bear, undergo, endure" (see suffer).

inconvenience (n.)

c. 1400, "harm, damage; danger; misfortune, affliction," from Old French inconvenience "misfortune, calamity; impropriety" (Modern French inconvenance), from Late Latin inconvenientia "lack of consistency, incongruity" (in Medieval Latin "misfortune, affliction"), abstract noun from inconvenientem (see inconvenient). Sense of "impropriety, unfitness; an improper act or utterance" in English is from early 15c. Meaning "quality of being inconvenient" is from 1650s.

broke (adj.)

from obsolete past participle of break (v.); extension to "insolvent" is first recorded 1716 (broken in this sense is attested from 1590s). Old English cognate broc meant, in addition to "that which breaks," "affliction, misery."

suffering (n.)

"patient enduring of pain, inconvenience, loss, etc.," mid-14c.; "undergoing of punishment, affliction, etc.," late 14c., verbal noun from suffer (v.). Meaning "a painful condition, pain felt" is from late 14c.

misery (n.)

late 14c., "state of grievous affliction, condition of external unhappiness," from Old French misere "miserable situation, misfortune, distress" (12c.), from Latin miseria "wretchedness," from miser "wretched, pitiable" (see miser). Meaning "condition of one in great sorrow or mental distress" is from 1530s.

dysphoria (n.)

"impatience under affliction," 1842, from Greek dysphoria "pain hard to be borne, anguish," etymologically "hard to bear," from dys- "bad, hard" (see dys-) + pherein "to carry" (from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry").

grief (n.)

early 13c., "hardship, suffering, pain, bodily affliction," from Old French grief "wrong, grievance, injustice, misfortune, calamity" (13c.), from grever "afflict, burden, oppress," from Latin gravare "make heavy; cause grief," from gravis "weighty" (from PIE root *gwere- (1) "heavy"). Meaning "mental pain, sorrow" is from c. 1300. Good grief as an exclamation of surprise, dismay, etc., is from 1912.

Trending words