does anyone know of a word for inward grief. Here's the background. The husband of a friend of mine has cancer for 10 years now and all these years my friend has been to the hospitals with him and she says she is is consistently seeing the mistiness of eyes from turning inward - i.e. they do not see her at all. She writes an article about her learnings and is looking for a word in any language that would be for that inward grief. Any suggestions? Thank you so much San
The word that immediately came to mind was introspection: "The action of looking within, or into one's own mind; examination or observation of one's own thoughts, feelings, or mental state." (OED Online). That isn't quite right, though, since it doesn't necessarily imply grief. I put the phrase "inward grief: into Onelook's reverse dictionary and came up with this list. I just checked a few of them and two that may fit are disconsolation and dolefulness.
Welcome, san. I have to agree with Jerry. We have often talked here that we don't need single words for complicated situations or thoughts such as this. If we were German we'd probably call it inwardgrief and be done with it.
