Literary notes about lorn (AI summary)
In literature, "lorn" is often used to evoke a deep sense of abandonment, solitude, or melancholy. Writers deploy the term to emphasize the emotional isolation of characters, as seen when a person is left completely forsaken by fate or love—illustrated by its pairing with "love" to announce unrequited or lost affection ([1], [2], [3]). It also appears in contexts that stress a character’s inner desolation or external loneliness, contributing to a melancholic tone in narrative passages ([4], [5], [6]). Moreover, in some works the word reaches into the realm of geography or history, serving as a proper noun or attributive marker that adds an archaic or regional flavor to the text ([7], [8]). Overall, the use of "lorn" enriches language by seamlessly blending emotional and sometimes topographical descriptions of isolation.
- And, indeed, what lover might not have taken courage at remembering the sweet pity that shone in her eyes at the revelation of his love-lorn state?
— from Dr. Heidenhoff's Process by Edward Bellamy - There was a bright moonlight; but she sat not up by the window, looking out at the moon in love-lorn guise.
— from The Man in Black: An Historical Novel of the Days of Queen Anne by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James - Seek her in a little while, my lone lorn Dan’l, and that’ll be but right!
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - Still, he seldom lacked company in the long hours when Eve was busy with the petty duties of her days, and left him lorn.
— from Alias the Lone Wolf by Louis Joseph Vance - I know how ‘tis; I know you think that I am lone and lorn; but, deary love, ‘tan’t so no more!
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - At last she shed tears on that subject, and said again that she was ‘a lone lorn creetur’ and everythink went contrary with her’.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - The finest examples of this type of brooch are known as the "brooch of Lorn," the "Ugadale brooch," and the "Loch Buy brooch."
— from Jewellery by H. Clifford (Harold Clifford) Smith - His elder brother, Alexander of Islay, or of the Isles, was in the English interest, and had married Juliana of Lorn, sister of John of Lorn.
— from The Bruce by John Barbour
