a. (sb.) [The construction out of which this word arose is illustrated by the quots. immediately following, in which an objective pron. is governed by a compound tense of BEGO (q.v. sense 8) with WOE sb. as subject (Me is wo bigon = Woe has beset me):—
c. 1330. Amis & Amil., 2150. Me nas neuer so woe bigon, Yif thou it wost vnderstond! For … almost ichaue him slon.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 588. Noght wolde I telle how me is wo bigon But certes outher moste I dye or pleyne.
Subsequently a change of construction took place, parallel to the passing of me is woe into I am woe (see WOE a.), woe and begone becoming consequently so indivisibly associated as to form a compound.
In the following quot. there seems to be a blend of the old and new constructions:
1593. T. Watson, Tears of Fancie, xxxviii. My hart doth whisper I am woe begone me.]
1. ‘Beset with woe’; oppressed with misfortune, distress, sorrow or grief. Obs. or arch.
13[?]. Guy Warw. (A.), 312. He went and trent his bed opon, So man þat is wo bigon.
a. 1366[?]. Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 336. In worlde nys wyght so harde of herte … That nolde haue had of her pyte So wo begone a thyng was she.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 272. Hellen…, Which of the See was wo bego, For pure drede hire herte hath lore.
13[?]. Northern Passion (1913), I. 140. Tyll anoynt with all his seke body Þat wafull was and wa began.
c. 1430. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903), 207. Þou myȝtist han holpe ȝong & oolde Þat ben disesid and woo-bigoon.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. xxiii. 257. Beestys, byrdys, alle haue thay rest, when thay ar wo begon.
c. 1480. Henryson, Sheep & Dog, 1291. So is mony one Now in this warld richt wonder wo be gone.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. xiii. 79. Sa wobegone becam this lusty man That salt teris fast our his chekis ran.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 71. Euen such a man, so faint, so spiritlesse, So dull, so dead in looke, so woe-be-gone.
1603. J. Davies, Microcosmos, 192. To succour one another woe-begon.
1615. Brathwait, Strappado (1878), 93. All wea-begane, thus liu’d the Shepheard long.
1805–6. Cary, Dante, Inf., XVIII. 83. That lofty shade, who … seems too woe-begone to drop a tear.
[1852. Thackeray, Esmond, III. ix. Poor Frank Castlewood, who Esmond thought might be wobegone on account of parting with his divine Clotilda.]
2. Of persons in respect of their looks, appearance or manner: Exhibiting or betraying a state of distress, misery, anguish or grief. Also transf. of inanimate objects.
The rise of this sense in the modern period was due to an archaistic revival of the word, perhaps with special reference to such contexts as that of quot. 1597 in sense 1.
1802. Mrs. E. Parsons, Myst. Visit, IV. 135. You have left all your woe-begone looks behind.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., II. v. (1849), 112. The wo-begone heroes … eyed each other with rueful countenances.
1825. Waterton, Wand. S. Amer., IV. 275. St. John’s is the capital of Antigua…. At present it appears sad and woe-begone.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, I. ii. 89. A poor mendicant approached, old and woebegone.
1862. Sala, Accepted Addr., 153. It was the most woebegone excavation … you ever saw.
1883. D. C. Murray, Hearts, viii. Remembering how sad and woe-begone the little man seemed at leaving England.
1891. ‘J. S. Winter,’ Mrs. Bob, xviii. ‘And I dare say I should,’ she ended, laughing at this woe-begone picture of herself.
Comb. 1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, ii. Some woe-begone looking fellows were … laden with our baggage.
1858. R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, lxvi. A wretched, dilapidated woe-begone-looking place.
b. as sb. A woe-begone creature.
1879. E. Arnold, Lt. Asia, V. 117. Whom sadly eying spake our Lord to one, Chief of the woe-begones.
1893. Kinney, in The King’s Business (New Haven, Ct.), 138. The streaming tears of those woe-begones.
Hence Woe-begoneness, Woe-begonish a.
1826. B. Hall, in Lockhart, Scott (1837), VI. 316. His countenance … a little woe-begonish.
c. 1863. J. Brown, John Leech etc., Thackeray’s Death (1882), 187. A strange visage, staring at him with an expression of comical woebegoneness.
1885. H. O. Forbes, Nat. Wand. E. Archip., 159. The intermittent ‘All’-il-allahs’—whose very woe-begoneness made me smile.
