condole means followed by with: to express condolence to, or sympathetic sorrow with, someone; to lament in sympathy with someone. It carries an Arena rating of 1661, earned across 39 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, condole ranks #2,296 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,834 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,121 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,322 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
condole is pronounced /kənˈdəʊl/.
Why “condole” is a great word
CONDOLE — [Verb] To express formal sympathy or shared sorrow, especially in bereavement. From the Late Latin condolēre, from Latin con- ("with, together") + dolēre ("to grieve, suffer"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- ("to divide, split"). First attested in English in the 1580s. Unlike console, which seeks to actively alleviate grief, or commiserate, which shares a broader, often lighter distress, to condole is to stand formally within the space of another's loss. It is the precisely worded card, the murmured phrase at a funeral, the quiet clasp of a hand—a ritual acknowledgment that, while grief divides, the act of sharing it briefly holds the edges of the rupture.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ecclesiastical Latin condolēre, the present active infinitive of condoleō (“to feel severe pain, suffer greatly; to suffer with or feel another’s pain, condole”), from Latin con- (prefix denoting a being or bringing together of several things) + doleō (“to suffer physical pain, hurt; to be sorry, grieve for, deplore, lament”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- (“to divide, split”)).
verb
- Followed by with: to express condolence to, or sympathetic sorrow with, someone; to lament in sympathy with someone.e.g.“She condoled with her father over the death of his mother.”
- To express deep sorrow; to grieve, to lament.
- To express regret or sorrow over (an undesirable event or other misfortune); to bemoan, to grieve, to lament.
- To express condolence to, or sympathetic sorrow with (someone); to lament in sympathy with (someone).e.g.“Let vs condoll the knight: for lamkins vve vvill liue.” — 1599 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift, […] (First Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Tho[mas] Millington, and Iohn Busby […], published 1600, →OCLC, [
- To express or feel sorrow for (oneself); to bewail, to mourn.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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