woe-begone, a. (n.)
(ˈwəʊbɪgɒn, -ɔː-)
[The construction out of which this word arose is illustrated by the quots. immediately following, in which an objective pron. is governed by a compound tense of bego (q.v. sense 8) with woe n. as subject (me is wo bigon = woe has beset me):—
c 1330 Amis & Amil. 2150 Me nas neuer so woe bigon, Yif thou it wost vnderstond! For..almost ichaue him slon. c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 588 Noght wolde I telle how me is wo bigon But certes outher moste I dye or pleyne.
Subsequently a change of construction took place, parallel to the passing of me is woe into I am woe (see woe a.), woe and begone becoming consequently so indivisibly associated as to form a compound.
In the following quot. there seems to be a blend of the old and new constructions:
1593 T. Watson Tears of Fancie xxxviii, My hart doth whisper I am woe begone me.]
1. ‘Beset with woe’; oppressed with misfortune, distress, sorrow, or grief. Obs. or arch.
| 13.. Guy Warw. (A.) 312 He went and trent his bed opon, So man þat is wo bigon. ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 336 In worlde nys wyght so harde of herte..That nolde haue had of her pyte So wo begone a thyng was she. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 272 Hellen.., Which of the See was wo bego, For pure drede hire herte hath lore. 13.. Northern Passion (1913) I. 140 Tyll anoynt with all his seke body Þat wafull was and wa began. c 1430 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903) 207 Þou myȝtist han holpe ȝong & oolde Þat ben disesid and woo-bigoon. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xxiii. 257 Beestys, byrdys, alle haue thay rest, when thay ar wo begon. c 1480 Henryson Sheep & Dog 1291 So is mony one Now in this warld richt wonder wo be gone. 1513 Douglas æneis x. xiii. 79 Sa wobegone becam this lusty man That salt teris fast our his chekis ran. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. i. 71 Euen such a man, so faint, so spiritlesse, So dull, so dead in looke, so woe-be-gone. 1603 J. Davies Microcosmos 192 To succour one another woe-begon. 1615 R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 93 All wea-begane, thus liu'd the Shepheard long. 1805–6 Cary Dante, Inf. xviii. 83 That lofty shade, who..seems too woe-begone to drop a tear. [1852 Thackeray Esmond iii. ix, Poor Frank Castlewood, who Esmond thought might be wobegone on account of parting with his divine Clotilda.] |
2. Of persons in respect of their looks, appearance, or manner: Exhibiting or betraying a state of distress, misery, anguish, or grief. Also transf. of inanimate objects.
The rise of this sense in the modern period was due to an archaistic revival of the word, perhaps with special reference to such contexts as that of quot. 1597 in sense 1.
| 1802 E. Parsons Myst. Visit IV. 135 You have left all your woe-begone looks behind. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. ii. v. (1849) 112 The wo-begone heroes..eyed each other with rueful countenances. 1825 Waterton Wand. S. Amer. iv. 275 St. John's is the capital of Antigua... At present it appears sad and woe-begone. 1837 Lockhart Scott I. ii. 89 A poor mendicant approached, old and woebegone. 1862 Sala Accepted Addr. 153 It was the most woebegone excavation..you ever saw. 1883 D. C. Murray Hearts viii, Remembering how sad and woe-begone the little man seemed at leaving England. 1891 ‘J. S. Winter’ Mrs. Bob xviii, ‘And I dare say I should’, she ended, laughing at this woe⁓begone picture of herself. |
| Comb. 1844 Kinglake Eothen ii, Some woe-begone looking fellows were..laden with our baggage. 1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma lxvi, A wretched, dilapidated woe-begone⁓looking place. |
b. as n. A woe-begone creature.
| 1879 E. Arnold Lt. Asia v. 117 Whom sadly eying spake our Lord to one, Chief of the woe-begones. 1893 Kinney in The King's Business (New Haven, Ct.) 138 The streaming tears of those woe-begones. |
Hence ˈwoe-beˌgoneness, ˈwoe-beˌgonish a.
| 1826 B. Hall in Lockhart Scott (1837) VI. 316 His countenance..a little woe-begonish. c 1863 J. Brown John Leech etc., Thackeray's Death (1882) 187 A strange visage, staring at him with an expression of comical woebegoneness. 1885 H. O. Forbes Nat. Wand. E. Archip. 159 The intermittent ‘All'-il-allahs’—whose very woe-begoneness made me smile. |