Chaucer, The Knightes Tale.
All mankind lo! that dreadful is to die,
Thou dost constrain long death to learn by thee.
Heywood, Translation of Seneca’s Hercules Furens.
Thou art so set, as thou hast no cause to be
Jealous, or dreadful of disloyalty.
Daniel, Panegyric to the King.
| Dreary, | } |
| Dreariness. |
This word has slightly shifted its meaning. In our earlier English it was used exactly as its German cognate ‘traurig’ is now, to designate the heaviness at once of countenance and of heart; very much the σκυθρωπός of the Greeks, though not admitting the subaudition of anger, which in that word is often contained. [Its Old English form was dréorig.]
And the king seide to me, Whi is thi chere dreri, sithen I see thee not sick?—2 Esdras ii. 2. Wiclif.