sorry
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English sory, from Old English sāriġ (“feeling or expressing grief, sorry, grieved, sorrowful, sad, mournful, bitter”), from Proto-West Germanic *sairag, from Proto-Germanic *sairagaz (“sad”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂yro (“hard, rough, painful”). Cognate with Scots sairie (“sad, grieved”), Saterland Frisian seerich (“sore, inflamed”), West Frisian searich (“sad, sorry”), Low German serig (“sick, scabby”), German dialectal sehrig (“sore, sad, painful”), Swedish sårig. Despite the similarity in form and meaning, not related to sorrow. Equivalent to sore + -y.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsɒ.ɹi/
- (General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈsɑɹ.i/, /ˈsɔɹ.i/
Adjective edit
sorry (comparative sorrier, superlative sorriest)
- (of a person) Regretful or apologetic for one's actions.
- Synonyms: apologetic, compunctious, contrite, penitent, regretful, remorseful, repentant
- I am sorry I stepped on your toes. It was an accident.
- (of a person) Grieved or saddened, especially by the loss of something or someone.
- Synonyms: heavy-hearted, melancholy, mournful
- I am sorry for your loss.
- The President was sorry to hear that the Ambassador was leaving.
- Poor, pitifully sad or regrettable.
- The storm left his garden in a sorry state.
- Pathetic; contemptibly inadequate.
- Bob is a sorry excuse for a football player.
- 2023 May 25, David Smith, “Failure to launch: Twitter glitches deal double blow to Elon Musk and Ron DeSantis”, in The Guardian[1], →ISSN:
- The sorry experience did little to suggest that Musk knows how to run a social media platform or that DeSantis is capable of governing a global superpower armed with nuclear weapons.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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Interjection edit
sorry
- Expresses regret, remorse, or sorrow.
- Synonym: (slang, chiefly Britain) soz
- Sorry! I didn't see that you were on the phone.
- Sorry about yesterday. — No worries.
- Used as a request for someone to repeat something not heard or understood clearly.
- Synonyms: I beg your pardon?, I'm sorry?, say again, come again, (US) excuse me?; see also Thesaurus:say again
- Sorry? What was that? The phone cut out.
- Used to correct oneself in speech.
- There are four– sorry, five branches of the store locally.
- Said as a request to pass somebody.
- Synonym: excuse me
- Sorry! Coming through!
Descendants edit
Translations edit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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Noun edit
sorry (plural sorries or sorrys)
- The act of saying sorry; an apology.
- 2007, Christopher Levan, Give Us This Day: Lenten Reflections on Baking Bread and Discipleship, page 107:
- The British would do it standing stock still, Latinos would dance their sorries, and Canadians would find a way to apologize on ice.
- 2008, Lucy S. Danziger, Self Magazine's 15 Minutes to Your Best Self:
- So learn how to tailor your sorries to the sexes. Women tend to want an acknowledgment of what they're going through...
Translations edit
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Related terms edit
Further reading edit
- “sorry”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “sorry”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Chinese edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Interjection edit
Synonyms edit
Czech edit
Etymology edit
Interjection edit
sorry
Dutch edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Interjection edit
sorry
- sorry (expressing regret)
- Je hebt me heel erg pijn gedaan toen je dat zei. — Sorry, dat is nooit mijn bedoeling geweest.
- You really hurt me a lot when you said that. — Sorry, that was never my intention.
- Je hebt me heel erg pijn gedaan toen je dat zei. — Sorry, dat is nooit mijn bedoeling geweest.
- sorry, pardon, excuse me
- Je stond op mijn voet! — Oh, sorry!
- You were standing on my foot! — Oh, sorry!
- Je stond op mijn voet! — Oh, sorry!
Synonyms edit
- (expressing regret): het spijt me
- (pardon): pardon, excuseer
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
- → Papiamentu: sòri
German edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English sorry.
Pronunciation edit
Interjection edit
sorry
- (colloquial) sorry (expressing regret)
- Synonym: Entschuldigung
- 2020 December 24, Bernd Ulrich, “Das Jahr, in dem die Normalität zu Ende ging”, in Die Zeit[2]:
- […] Armin Laschet und Olaf Scholz wollen vor allem die alte BRD bewahren und die Methode Merkel mit, sorry, schwächeren Mitteln prolongieren; […]
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Further reading edit
Middle English edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Anglo-Norman soree.
Noun edit
sorry
- Alternative form of sorre
Etymology 2 edit
From Old English sāriġ.
Noun edit
sorry
- (Late ME) Alternative form of sory
Polish edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English sorry.
Pronunciation edit
Interjection edit
sorry
- (informal) sorry! (expressing regret)
- Synonym: przepraszam
Further reading edit
- sorry in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Spanish edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English sorry.
Pronunciation edit
Interjection edit
sorry
Usage notes edit
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.
Swedish edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English sorry.
Interjection edit
sorry
- (informal, casual) sorry (expressing regret)
- Sorry, brevet låg i fel brevlåda. Råkade öppna.
- Sorry, the letter was in the wrong letter box. Opened by mistake.
- 2024 January 12, Max Wiman, “Sorry, resten av Malmö – på Limhamn finns allt [Sorry, the rest of Malmö - Limhamn has everything]”, in Sydsvenskan:
- Det är svårt att sakna något här, så sorry resten av Malmö. Här finns allt.
- It's hard to miss something here, so sorry the rest of Malmö. Everything is here.
Usage notes edit
- As with many English expressions in Swedish; the word sorry has much lower weight and meaning than its counterpart förlåt (“sorry”).
Synonyms edit
Anagrams edit
Yola edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English sory, from Old English sāriġ, from Proto-West Germanic *sairag.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sorry
References edit
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 69