My Word of the Day totally gets me

Word of the Day for Wednesday, June 25, 2008

forlorn \fur-LORN; for-\, adjective:

1. Sad and lonely because deserted, abandoned, or lost.
2. Bereft; forsaken.
3. Wretched or pitiful in appearance or condition.
4. Almost hopeless; desperate.

Henry had felt guilty at abandoning his sister; he had married not once but twice, leaving Rose forlorn.
-- Anita Brookner, Visitors

In these forlorn regions of unknowable dreary space, this reservoir of frost and snow, where firm fields of ice, the accumulation of centuries of winters, glazed in Alpine heights above heights, surround the pole, and concentre the multiplied rigours of extreme cold.
-- Francis Spufford, I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination

Bloch remembers that Stephen was a member of the Milk Squad, comprised of children who were considered to need extra nutrition, and early photographs do show him as one of the smaller boys, in the front row, looking forlorn.
-- Meryle Secrest, Stephen Sondheim: A Life

Forlorn comes from Old English forleosan, "to abandon," from for- + leosan, "to lose."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for forlorn

I don't like being away from The Someone. And by "don't like" I mean that I feel like I might die. This is a new feeling. I have missed significant others in the past, but as a person who does not mind spending a lot of time alone, separations--even long ones--were always basically fine. Now? Part of me is here in the Deep Red, doing this and that with my family. And part of me is perpetually absorbed in thoughts of The Someone. All of me is longing to see The Someone and pathetically heartbroken that it will be twelve days before I do. Forlorn gorgon.