Logophile’s Lunchbox — Dreary Words

I can’t help but notice that I’ve affected the vocabulary of pop music.— David Bowie

Language fascinates me, and different words have different energies.— Alan Rickman

It has been a difficult week.

The passing of David Bowie and Alan Rickman in the same week took some of the light out of the world. It’s appropriate that this week’s Lunchbox should contain a hint of grey, so we have three morose words that sum up the week’s events.


From the Latin lugubri, meaning “mournful”, we get the word lugubrious. It too means “mournful”, but sometimes carries connotations of melodramatic and exaggerated wailing.

dreary words: lugubrious


Something that is lachrymose (“LACK-ruh-mohs”) causes tears, or is tearful. The word comes from the Latin lacrima, or “tear”, the same root that gives the lacrimal glands — the source of tears — their name.

The curious spelling of lachrymose is a relic of the Medieval Latin practice of writing “ch” instead of “c” when the following letter is an “r”. You can see that same quirk at work in sepulchre, a word spotlighted in our Halloween edition last year, and

dreary words: lachrymose


Fuscous Honeyeaters, Australia. Credit: Aviceda

Fuscous Honeyeaters, Australia. Credit: Aviceda

Our final word is fuscous, a somber, brownish-grey color. It also comes from the Latin: fuscus is the Latin term for “dusky”.

The fuscous honeyeaters to the right show that there is beauty even in the most somber colors.

dreary words: fuscous

About John Doppler

Author, cruciverbalist, serial hobbyist... John Doppler blends science, art, and humor into a delicious smoothie of chaotic evil.
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