From Middle English wo-bigon, wo-begon (“(adjective) deeply affected by woe, distressed, sorrowful, wretched; affected by physical impairment or pain; tired, weary; abominable, cursed; (noun) unfortunate person, wretch”), from wo (“distress, misery, woe; physical pain or suffering; etc.”) + bigon (the past participle form of bigon (“of a state: to come upon or overtake (someone), beset, overwhelm, bego; of a person: to be overwhelmed by grief, etc.”)): * wo is derived from Old English wā (“woe”), from Proto-West Germanic *wai (“woe!”, interjection), from Proto-Germanic *wai (“woe!”, interjection), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wáy (“ah!, oh!; alas!, woe!”, interjection). * bigon is derived from Old English begān (“to go over, traverse; to beset, surround; to occupy; to overrun; etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *bigān, from *bi- (from Proto-Germanic *bi- (prefix meaning ‘at; by’), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁épi (“at; near; on”)) + *gān (“to go”) (from Proto-Germanic *gāną (“to go; to walk”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁- (“to go; to reach; to abandon, leave”)). By surface analysis, woe + begone (the past participle form of bego (“(obsolete) to affect”)). Noun sense 1 (“person who is deeply affected or overwhelmed by suffering or trouble, and so filled with woe”) became obsolete after the 14th or 15th century, and was only revived in the 19th century.
1
Of a person: deeply affected or overwhelmed by suffering or trouble, and so filled with woe (“great distress or sadness”); (loosely) forlorn, sad, unhappy.
[M]ake an ende of mone, / For you are ſicke, and ſhe is woe begone.1576, George Gascoigne, “[Flowers.] The Delectable History of Sundry Aduentures Passed by Dan Bartholomew of Bathe.”, in The Posies of George Gascoigne Esquire. […], London: […] H[enry] Bynneman for Richard Smith, […], →OCLC, page c:
Thou trembleſt, and the vvhitenes in thy cheeke, / Is apter then thy tongue to tell thy arrand, / Euen ſuch a man, ſo faint, ſo ſpiritleſſe, / So dull, ſo dead in looke, ſoe vvoe begon, / Drevv Priams curtaine in the dead of night, / And vvould haue told him halfe his Troy vvas burnt: […]c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], signature A3, verso:
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Pipe he could not, his cheeks vvere grovvne ſo thinne, / His pipe-bagge torne, no vvind it could keep in, / […] / His Flockes did pine (all vvent contrary vvay) / Heere lay Admetus, there his Sheep-crooke lay, /. All vvea-begane, thus liu'd the Shepheard long, […]1615, Richarde Brathwaite [i.e., Richard Braithwait], “An Epigramme Called the Wooer”, in A Strappado for the Diuell. […], London: […] I. B[eale] for Richard Redmer […], →OCLC, page 93:
Behold that lofty shade, who this way tends, / And seems too woe-begone to drop a tear.1814, Dante Alighieri, “Canto XVIII”, in H[enry] F[rancis] Cary, transl., The Vision; or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, of Dante Alighieri. […], volume I (Hell), London: […] [J. Barfield] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 77, lines 82–83:
He was in better ſpirits than poor Frank Caſtlewood, who Eſmond thought might be woe-be-gone on account of parting with his divine Clotilda; […]1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Original of the Portrait Comes to England”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume III, London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC, pages 211–212:
The woebegone children have their aspirations slowly snuffed. Grace's artistic dreams (of animation, of course) are punctured by her isolated existence; Gilbert's pyrophilia is smothered by religious extremism.2024 October 23, Jacob Oller, “Clay Weepy Memoir Of A Snail Crawls through a Gauntlet of Misery”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2025:
2
Broadly Of a person or thing: having a distressed, miserable, or sad appearance.
Pen and Miss Bolton were hard by listening to the same concert, and the latter remarked, and Pen laughed at Mr. Foker's wo-begone face. Fanny asked what it was that made that odd-looking little man so dismal? "I think he is crossed in love!" Pen said.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Monseigneur s’ Amuse”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 84:
I now went down to have a look at the "port." It was the most woebegone excavation, full of mud and fishy refuse, you ever saw.1862, George Augustus Sala, “About Shrimpington”, in Accepted Addresses, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 153:
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When he was finished, as such, he was wringing wet, and now he had to edge and shimmy his way back, and with a most woebegone look, and everybody laughing, except the sad blond boy, and the Minnesotans roaring in the cab.1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 4, in On the Road, London: Penguin Books, published 1976, →ISBN, part 1, page 29:
"[T]his café is really on the losing end of this street." It was almost as woebegone in sunshine as it had been in the rain.1966, Helen MacInnes, chapter 6, in The Double Image, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, →OCLC, page 80:
3
Broadly Of a thing: in a deplorable state.
The 44-year-old [Mikhail] Prokhorov, the second-richest man in Russia, is expected to assume control of the woebegone Nets within the next few weeks.2010 April 27, Howard Beck, “Russian billionaire is white knight for the Nets”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2021:
From Middle English wo-bigon, wo-begon (“(adjective) deeply affected by woe, distressed, sorrowful, wretched; affected by physical impairment or pain; tired, weary; abominable, cursed; (noun) unfortunate person, wretch”), from wo (“distress, misery, woe; physical pain or suffering; etc.”) + bigon (the past participle form of bigon (“of a state: to come upon or overtake (someone), beset, overwhelm, bego; of a person: to be overwhelmed by grief, etc.”)): * wo is derived from Old English wā (“woe”), from Proto-West Germanic *wai (“woe!”, interjection), from Proto-Germanic *wai (“woe!”, interjection), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wáy (“ah!, oh!; alas!, woe!”, interjection). * bigon is derived from Old English begān (“to go over, traverse; to beset, surround; to occupy; to overrun; etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *bigān, from *bi- (from Proto-Germanic *bi- (prefix meaning ‘at; by’), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁épi (“at; near; on”)) + *gān (“to go”) (from Proto-Germanic *gāną (“to go; to walk”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁- (“to go; to reach; to abandon, leave”)). By surface analysis, woe + begone (the past participle form of bego (“(obsolete) to affect”)). Noun sense 1 (“person who is deeply affected or overwhelmed by suffering or trouble, and so filled with woe”) became obsolete after the 14th or 15th century, and was only revived in the 19th century.
1
A person who is deeply affected or overwhelmed by suffering or trouble, and so filled with woe.
Near-synonym: (chiefly US, informal) sad sack
According to the prophecy of Mrs. [Maria] Woodworth, George Erickson and several other revivalists, who created considerable excitement in Oakland some time ago, this was the day on which San Francisco and Oakland were to be destroyed by earthquake and a tidal wave, and the cities of Chicago and Milwaukee were also to suffer the same calamity. […] All the weakminded and ‘locoed’ people in Oakland seemed to get the craze and from dark until midnight the main street was a pandemonium of salvation brass-bands, corner preachers, delirious doom sealers, and fleeing ‘woebegones’ with their torches. […] I see by despatches in The Sun that some of them have sold their property at low figures, […] but if I’m not much mistaken, the woebegones will come back and reclaim their property, […]1890 April 15, “Oakland’s doom sealers. Camped out on the hills waiting for the destruction that did not come.”, in The Sun, volume LVII, number 227, New York, N.Y.: [Moses Yale Beach], →OCLC, page 2, column 3:
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Two woebegones they chanced to meet, / With hungry eyes, as if despair / Like an old spider sat in there / And slow thereof did drink and eat; […]1917, Maurice Hewlett, “Life in Death”, in The Loving History of Peridore & Paravail, London; Glasgow: W[illiam] Collins Sons & Co., →OCLC, stanza 20, page 105:
How many wingeing woebegones have you got there for me this morning?1988, Jonathan Havard, chapter 3, in Coming of Age, London: William Heinemann, →ISBN, page 25:
Those woebegones will seek to make an end of it and, before sunrise, there won't be very many people left in the world at all.2014, Robin Jarvis, chapter 25, in Fighting Pax (Dancing Jax; 3), London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 482: