Word of the Day for Tuesday June 28, 2005 woebegone \WOE-bee-gon\, adjective: 1. Beset or overwhelmed with woe; immersed in grief or sorrow; woeful. 2. Being in a sorry condition; dismal-looking; dilapidated; run-down. Socrates, condemned to death by the people of Athens, prepares to drink a cup of hemlock, surrounded by woebegone friends. --Alain De Botton, [1]The Consolations of Philosophy This woebegone lot includes Henry, a real-estate developer whose dream project has, like his marriage, slipped into bankruptcy; Henry's sister, Wiloma, who has hurled herself headlong into the arms of a New Age church to survive her own divorce; and Henry and Wiloma's decrepit Uncle Brendan, a former monk whose faith has eroded along with his health, stranding him in a nursing home. --Jennifer Howard, review of [2]The Forms of Water, by Andrea Barrett, [3]New York Times, June 13, 1993 After 40 years as a producer he thinks of himself as a battered, scarred but well-armoured animal, "like an old turtle"; and if such creatures could speak they would probably sound like [him], a bit woebegone but drolly unsurprised by life's vicissitudes. --"Time for another Hugo hit," [4]Times (London), May 22, 2000 _________________________________________________________ Woebegone is from Middle English wo begon, from wo (from Old English wa, used to express grief) + begon, past participle of begon, "to go about, to beset," from Old English began, bigan, from bi-, "around, about" + gan, "to go." References 1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679442766/ref%3Dnosim/lexico 2. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671795228/ref%3Dnosim/lexico 3. http://www.nytimes.com/ 4. http://www.the-times.co.uk/ Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=woebegone