Forlorn means lonely and without hope. A forlorn figure, look forlorn, a forlorn hope.
A forlorn hope is a strange fixed phrase: it is a mangled Dutch term for a lost troop, the men sent first into a breach, and it means a desperate attempt rather than a sad wish. On its own, forlorn describes the look of somebody left behind.
1adjectiveforlornLonely and without hope.
“A forlorn little dog sat outside the shop, waiting for its owner.”
forlorn is a quality.
forLORN → the last chair on an empty LAWN
One chair left out on the lawn, and nobody coming back for it.
hooks ontolawn
Old English forloren is the past participle of forleosan, to lose utterly.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Proto-Germanic
*fraluzanaz — lost
Old English
forloren
Middle English
forlorn
English, today
forlorn
Built from
From Middle English forlorn, forloren, from Old English forloren (past participle of forlēosan (“to lose”)), from Proto-Germanic fraluzanaz (“lost”), past participle of Proto-Germanic fraleusaną (“to lose”), equivalent to for + lorn. Cognate with West Frisian ferlern (“lost”), stq ferlädden (“lost”), Dutch verloren (“lost”), German Low German verloren (“lost”), German verloren (“lost”), Swedish förlorad (“lost”). See further at lese/leese, lorn.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA