Word of the Day

: November 16, 2023

woebegone

adjective WOH-bih-gahn

What It Means

Woebegone describes someone or something that feels or shows great woe, sorrow, or misery.

// The team never looked more woebegone than it did heading back to the locker room after losing the championship to their rivals by a single run.

// Despite its woebegone appearance, the old mill town has a strong community and a vibrant arts scene.

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woebegone in Context

“It’s a classic pop formula: wed woebegone lyrics to bright sounds, drawing out all that’s entrancing about sadness. Peach Pit does it as well or better than most of their peers.” — Aarik Danielsen, The Columbia (Missouri) Tribune, 27 July 2023

Did You Know?

Whoa, whoa, whoa. We know that, at first glance, woebegone looks like a word that has its meaning backwards; after all, if begone means “go away,” shouldn’t woebegone mean “devoid of woe,” or “happy”? Not exactly. The word comes from the Middle English phrase wo begon. The wo in this phrase does indeed mean “woe,” but begon means “beset.” Someone who is woebegone, therefore, is beset with woe. Since the mid-1700s, the word has also been used to describe things that appear to express sadness, as in “the woebegone look on his face when he misplaced his favorite dictionary.”