grief
Formsgriefs, griefing, griefed
- 1Deep emotional pain arising from loss, misfortune, or wrongdoing; sorrow or sadness.
The widow's grief slowly eased as the years passed.
Survivors of the disaster carried a shared grief for decades.
Similarsadness, sorrow, unhappiness, misery, depression
Note
Sorrow that sits on the mind. George Whetstone in 1576 already writes of easing "his mynde of griefe," spelled with a final e. Unlike a general low mood, grief usually points back to a cause: a loss, a misfortune, a betrayal. It is mostly uncountable (so much grief, deep grief), and it carries the heaviness that the hardship sense traces to Latin gravis.
- 2A cause or instance of sorrow or pain; something that afflicts or distresses a person, a trial.
The failed harvest was the greatest grief the village faced that year.
She bore each of her griefs quietly, never asking for sympathy.
Similarsorrow, affliction, hardship, distress, misery
Note
Here sorrow becomes something you can count: the particular blows and trials themselves. The King James Bible of 1611 gives the classic line, "Surely, he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows," where griefs are burdens laid on someone. The usual plural is griefs, though grieves also exists. Verbs of carrying, such as bear, carry and endure, are its natural partners.
- 3Suffering or hardship that someone has to endure.
They endured years of grief before their fortunes finally turned.
Getting the permits approved caused us no end of grief.
Similarhardship, difficulty, trouble, distress, pain
Note
Hardship pictured as a load: the word came through Old French from Latin gravis, "heavy," and is a doublet of grave. In everyday speech this sense thrives in the idiom give someone grief, meaning to nag, hassle or make trouble for them, as the neighbors' teenagers do. Here grief is trouble caused rather than sorrow felt, and that is the sense the gamers' verb builds on.
My boss gave me grief for turning up late again.
Don't give him grief about it; he's had a rough week.
- 4To deliberately harass other players in an online game to spoil their enjoyment, often by exploiting game features to destroy or vandalize.
A few users logged on only to grief the server, smashing everyone's builds.
They reported a player who kept griefing the lobby all evening.
Similarharass, pester, torment, bug, trouble
Note
Online gaming built a verb on the noun, meaning to cause grief to other players, and it conjugates regularly: griefs, griefing, griefed. Julian Dibbell's 2008 article already describes "organized griefing" rooted in message-board communities with their own in-jokes and code words. Players draw a sharp line between griefing and cheating. Griefing uses the game's own mechanics to wreck others' fun and does not break the game itself.
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Origin
From Middle English greef, from Old French grief ('grave, heavy, grievous, sad'), from Latin gravis ('heavy, grievous, sad'). It is a doublet of grave.