Felt intense sorrow, especially following the death of someone or the loss of something important. Past tense of grieve.
From Old French grever meaning 'to burden, oppress,' from Latin gravare 'to make heavy,' related to gravis 'heavy.' The word's evolution from physical heaviness to emotional weight perfectly captures how grief feels.
The etymology reveals something profound about human experience - we literally describe emotional pain using the metaphor of physical weight. Grief actually does feel heavy, and this ancient linguistic connection suggests our ancestors understood that emotional and physical pain activate similar neural pathways.
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