Archaic spelling and variant of forlorn; utterly sad, abandoned, hopeless, or in a miserable condition.
From Old English 'forloren,' past participle of 'forleosan' (to lose completely). This form preserves an earlier spelling before 'forlore' shifted to 'forlorn.'
The shift from 'forlore' to 'forlorn' happened over centuries—adding that 'n' was influenced by similar adjectives, showing how pronunciation changes can lead to spelling changes, and then standardization freezes one version.
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