ALAS (uh-LASS)
Expression
of sorrow, regret, or grief
Common clues: Woe
is me!; Word of woe; “Sad to say...”; Word of regret;
“Too bad!”; Regrettably; [sigh]; Cry of dismay;
Despondent comment; "Ah, me!"; "Oh,
dear!"
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
once a month
Frequency
in English language:
9451 / 86800
News: Alas,
there will be no billionaire presidential cage match in
2020
Video: Kathryn
Schultz: Don't regret regret
Alas, how quickly the gratitude owed to the dead flows off, how quick to be proved a deceiver ~ Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)
John
Greenleaf Whittier's fictional heroine Maud Muller gazes into the
distance, regretting her inaction and thinking about what might
have been.
Regret is an intelligent (and/or emotional) dislike for personal past acts and behaviors. Regret is often felt when someone feels sadness, shame, or guilt after committing an action or actions that the person later wishes that he or she had not done. Regret is distinct from guilt, which is a deeply emotional form of regret — one which may be difficult to comprehend in an objective or conceptual way. In this regard, the concept of regret is subordinate to guilt in terms of its "emotional power." By comparison, shame typically refers to the social (rather than personal) aspect of guilt or (in minor context) regret as imposed by the society or culture (enforcement of ethics, morality), which has substantial bearing in matters of (personal and social) honor.
Regret can describe not only the dislike for an action that has been committed, but also, importantly, regret of inaction. Many people find themselves wishing that they had done something in a past situation.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Regret".
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