Meaning
Reacting with sadness, disappointment or regret rather than fury; hurt rather than enraged. In current use it usually frames someone's response to another person's conduct, often with a faint air of dignified reproach, as when a letter or a verdict is described that way. Slightly formal and literary in register. The sense has drifted from Horatio's literal description of a ghost's facial expression to a general characterisation of a person's emotional tone. Literary and a touch formal; colours a reaction as dignified disappointment rather than rage. Regional use: General English (Shakespearean origin).
Origin
Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 2 (The Phrase Finder dates the play 1602; most scholars place its writing c. 1600-1601). Asked by Hamlet whether the Ghost of his father looked frowning, Horatio replies, 'A countenance more in sorrow than in anger' - the dead king's face showed grief, not wrath. The Phrase Finder classifies it among the phrases Shakespeare coined, and no earlier use is commonly cited. It entered general English through the quotation culture surrounding the most studied play in the language, shifting on the way from a literal description of an apparition's expression to a general idiom for sorrowful, dignified reproach.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- in sorrow rather than in anger
- more in sadness than in anger
- sorrow, not anger
Usage Examples
- When the auditors found the error, the finance director seemed more in sorrow than in anger about the team's carelessness.
- Her review of the exhibition was more in sorrow than in anger, regretting wasted potential rather than condemning the curators.
- He shook his head, more in sorrow than in anger, at the way the negotiations had been handled.