Deeply grieved, sorrowful, or wounded in spirit; experiencing profound emotional pain.
From 'heart' + 'sore' (meaning painful or tender), combining the seat of emotion with the descriptor of physical pain. This poetic compound emerged in Middle English to describe deep emotional suffering using the metaphor of physical wound.
The phrase 'my heart is sore' literally meant your heart felt like a wound—people understood sadness as actual physical pain before we had language to separate emotion from sensation. This is why we still say 'heartbreak' and 'heartache' today!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.