Feeling, expressing, or inducing sadness, grief, or regret. Characterized by sorrow or lamentation.
From Old English murnan meaning 'to mourn' plus the suffix -ful. The base word comes from Proto-Germanic and is related to memory and care, suggesting mourning originally meant 'to remember with concern.'
The deep connection between mourning and memory embedded in this word's etymology reveals something profound about human grief - we don't just feel sad about loss, we actively remember and tend to our memories of what's gone. The word reminds us that mourning is a form of caring that transcends death.
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