a. Also 7 loansome, 8–9 Sc. lanesome. [f. LONE a. + -SOME.]
1. Of persons, their condition, feelings, etc.: Solitary, lonely. In later use, chiefly in emotional sense: Having a feeling of solitude or loneliness; feeling lonely or forlorn.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, III. lxxvi. Where he with him the loansome night did passe.
1700. Blackmore, Paraphr. Isa., xiv. 257. The lonesome Bittern shall possess This fenny seat.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), III. 348. Again his Harp the lonesome Poet strung.
1767–95. Macneill, Will & Jean, VI. Light the lanesome hours gae round.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxii. You must keep up your spirits, mother, and not be lonesome because I’m not at home.
1876. Smiles, Sc. Natur., iv. (ed. 4), 71. The boy began to feel very weary and lonesome.
2. Of localities, etc.: Solitary, unfrequented, desolate. In later use, chiefly with emotional sense: Causing feelings of loneliness, making one feel forlorn.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, III. App. Præexistency of Soul, xlix. [They] dance … Around an huge black Goat, in loansome wood.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1687, I. viii. 97. Neither shall we content our selves in lonesome tunes, and private soliloquies, to whisper out the Divine praises.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 495. If a man walk into loansome Fields amongst the Beasts.
1703. Rowe, Fair Penit., II. i. An unfrequented Vale,… within whose lonesome Shade, Ravens and Birds ill omen’d, only dwell.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., VI. 37. Like one that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread.
1799. Wordsw., Infl. Nat. Objects, 18. In November days When vapours rolling down the valleys made A lonely scene more lonesome.
1850. Hawthorne, Scarlet L., xiii. (1879), 186. In her lonesome cottage.
1901. Blackw. Mag., Jan., 60/2. This is the lonesomest place on earth.
Hence Lonesomely adv., Lonesomeness.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., VI. i. (1852), 345. His lonesomeness was now become as much as any hermit could have wished for.
1771. Mrs. Griffith, Hist. Lady Barton, II. 275. Honest old Saunders,… wonders mightily at my lordship, for passing my time so lonesomely, as he phrases it.
1822. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., LIV. 310. A shy lonesomeness of disposition.
1857. Tait’s Mag., XXIV. 41. The gas lamps … gleam lonesomely.
1884. ‘Mark Twain,’ in Century Mag., XXIX. 268/2. We would watch the lonesomeness of the river.
