Lugubrious is the sole surviving English offspring of Latin lugēre, meaning "to mourn." Its closest kin, luctual, an adjective meaning "sad" or "sorrowful," was put to rest centuries ago.
a comic actor known for his lugubrious manner the diner's dim lighting makes eating there a particularly lugubrious experience
Recent Examples on the WebThe film is in part lugubrious in its longing for obsolescent objects, in its yearning for years before iPhones (with which the crisis of the film would otherwise be more easily solved). Dini Adanurani, Variety, 9 Aug. 2022 Part of the problem: the generally lugubrious choice of musical material.New York Times, 13 June 2022 Wall Street’s lugubrious mood dragged into Friday, with the major U.S. indexes on track to extend their losses a day after registering their steepest slump since the beginning of the pandemic.Washington Post, 6 May 2022 The boom-and-bust border economy birthed a lugubrious landscape where homes suffer water shortages and bodies of missing persons turn up.New York Times, 23 Mar. 2022 Black Milk’s lugubrious boom-bap also scores the group’s commentary on our pandemic present and pro-marijuana rhetoric informed by their respective forays into the cannabis industry. Max Bell, SPIN, 17 Mar. 2022 Another facet of the exhibit featured a section on its rather lugubrious-looking, brooding Romanesque Revival red-brick headquarters at Calvert and Redwood streets. Frederick N. Rasmussen, baltimoresun.com, 16 Mar. 2022 So do many of the images, the lugubrious pace and the direction throughout.WSJ, 9 Feb. 2022 So do many of the images, the lugubrious pace and the direction throughout.WSJ, 9 Feb. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Latin lugubris, from lugēre to mourn; akin to Greek lygros mournful