lorn

Etymology

From Middle English lorn, loren, ilorn, iloren (past participle of lese, lesen (“to lose, be deprived of; to damn, doom to perdition”)), from Old English loren, ġeloren, from Proto-Germanic *galuzanaz, *luzanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *leusaną (“to lose”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewH- (“to cut, sever; to separate; to loosen; to lose”). See further at lese.

adj

  1. (obsolete) Doomed; lost.
  2. (archaic) Abandoned, forlorn, lonely.
    Yet, trust me, Memory's warmest sighs / Are often breathed in moments lorn— / And many a feeling thought will rise / And in the bosom die unborn. 1857, Gerald Griffin, “Addressed to a Friend”, in The Poetical and Dramatic Works of Gerald Griffin, Duffy: James Duffy 7 Wellington Quay, →OCLC, stanza VII, page 159
    He never found his beloved machine gun. Lorn and drained-nervous, he was fired next day. 1963, Thomas Pynchon, “In which Benny Profane, a Schlemihl and Human Yo-yo, Gets to an Apocheir”, in V.: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: J. B. Lippincott & Co., →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, 1964 March, →OCLC, page 19

verb

  1. (obsolete) past participle of lese.

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