▸ adjective
(sadder, saddest)
1 feeling or showing sorrow; unhappy:
I was sad and subdued
they looked at her with sad, anxious faces.
▪ causing or characterized by sorrow or regret; unfortunate and regrettable:
he told her the sad story of his life
a sad day for us all.
– ORIGIN Old English sæd ‘sated, weary’, also ‘weighty, dense’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zat and German satt, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin satis ‘enough’. The original meaning was replaced in Middle English by the senses ‘steadfast, firm’ and ‘serious, sober’, and later ‘sorrowful’.