yearnful
adjEtymology From Middle English yernful, ȝeornful, from Old English ġearnfull, ġeornful (“desirous, eager, zealous, diligent, anxious”), equivalent to yearn + -ful.
1
Filled with yearning; desirous; mournful; distressing.
- So now lend me thy yearnful tunes to utter my sorrow.1570, Richard Edwards, “Damon and Pithias”, in A select collection of old English plays, Volume 4, page 43:
- Ah! they were grand days, those deep, full days, when our coming life, like an unseen organ, pealed strange, yearnful music in our ears, and our young blood cried out like a war-horse for the battle.1886, Jerome K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow:
1 more example
- I am yearnful to know who was the unhappy person the wicked general threatened.1919, Albert Payson Terhune, “The Strike”, in O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919:
- Derived terms
- yearnfully, yearnfulness