Word of the Day

: May 3, 2010

repine

verb rih-PYNE

What It Means

1 : to feel or express dejection or discontent : complain

2 : to long for something

repine in Context

"They saw less of each other, and Robyn was aware that this did not cause her to repine as much as perhaps it should have done." (David Lodge, Nice Work)

Did You Know?

In longing, one can "repine over" something ("repining over her lost past"), or one can "pine for" something. The two words, used thus, mean close to the same thing, but not exactly. "Pining" is intense longing for what one once knew. "Repine" adds an element of discontent to any longing -- an element carried over from its first sense ("to feel or express dejection or discontent"), which has been in use since the 16th century. (Washington Irving used the first sense in his 1820 work The Sketch Book: "Through the long and weary day he repines at his unhappy lot.") "Pine" and "repine" are from Old English "pinian" ("to suffer") and probably ultimately from Latin "poena" ("punishment"). "Poena" also gave us our word "pain."