sore
pronunciation
How to pronounce sore in British English:
UK [sɔː(r)]
How to pronounce sore in American English:
US [sɔːr]
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- Noun:
- an open skin infection
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- Adjective:
- hurting
- causing misery or pain or distress
- roused to anger
- inflamed and painful
Word Origin
- sore
- sore: [OE] Sore comes from a prehistoric Germanic *sairaz ‘painful, pained’, which was related to Irish Gaelic sāeth ‘affliction, sickness’ and possibly Latin saevus ‘fierce’. It was borrowed into Finnish as sairas ‘ill’. The adverbial use of sore as an intensive (as in ‘sore afraid’) has now died out, but it survives in the related German sehr ‘very’. The word’s ancestral connotations were of mental as well as physical pain, and while sore has preserved the latter, the derivative sorry has kept to the former.=> sorry
- sore (adj.)
- Old English sar "painful, grievous, aching, sad, wounding," influenced in meaning by Old Norse sarr "sore, wounded," from Proto-Germanic *saira- "suffering, sick, ill" (cognates: Old Frisian sar "painful," Middle Dutch seer, Dutch zeer "sore, ache," Old High German ser "painful," Gothic sair "pain, sorrow, travail"), from PIE root *sai- (1) "suffering" (cognates: Old Irish saeth "pain, sickness"). Adverbial use (as in sore afraid) is from Old English sare but has mostly died out (replaced by sorely), but remains the main meaning of German cognate sehr "very." Slang meaning "angry, irritated" is first recorded 1738.
- sore (n.)
- Old English sar "bodily pain or injury, wound; sickness, disease; state of pain or suffering," from root of sore (adj.). Now restricted to ulcers, boils, blisters. Compare Old Saxon ser "pain, wound," Middle Dutch seer, Dutch zeer, Old High German ser, Old Norse sar, Gothic sair.
Example
- 1. Doctor , my eyes are very red and sore .
- 2. The neck muscles also become sore and tight .
- 3. You don 't go to your doctor to be told you have a sore throat .
- 4. Her eyes were red and sore , and there seemed to be no end to this night .
- 5. Sophie knew I had a sore breast , as she 'd sometimes knock it when we were larking around .