Language Matters | National Sorry Day: the origins of the word ‘sorry’ and how the meaning of apologies has changed over time
- Held yearly on May 26, Australia’s National Sorry Day acknowledges the loss suffered by ‘the stolen generations’ of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Originating in Old English as penitential acts and confessions to God, the word ‘sorry’ is now often used as mere token acknowledgement of minor offences
Sorry – Elton John sings – seems to be the hardest word.
Emerging in Old English, sarig (and other spelling forms) is composed of the Germanic base for “sore” plus suffix -y. Old English noun sar “sore” encompassed meanings, some now obsolete, of bodily pain or suffering, sickness and disease, as well as mental suffering and grief.
Sarig “sorry” tended to be closely associated with the word for “sorrow”, spelt sorg, sorh and various other forms, as both occupied the same semantic field of distress and suffering, even though they are not etymologically related.
An even closer formal resemblance to “sorrow” subsequently developed in Middle English, the vowel in the first syllable for “sorry” becoming rounded, resulting in sorj, soori, sorie and other variants.
Over time, the meaning of apologies changed. Scholars note that, while originating in Old English as penitential acts and confessions to God, apologies became appeals for human forgiveness.
These weakened further to expressions of regret, and eventually to speech acts often considered mere token acknowledgement of minor offences. (Cross-cultural differences do exist in their interpretation, e.g. expressing general remorse versus assigning blame.)