sorry: [OE] Sorry goes back to a prehistoric West Germanic *sairig-, a derivative of *sairaz (source of English sore). The original base denoted physical as well as mental pain, but it is the latter semantic path that has been taken by sorry. Despite the similarity, incidentally, sorry has no etymological connection with sorrow [OE], which comes from a prehistoric Germanic base meaning ‘care’, and is related to modern German sorge ‘worry, sorrow’. => sore
sorry (adj.)
Old English sarig "distressed, grieved, full of sorrow" (not found in the physical sense of "sore"), from Proto-Germanic *sairiga- "painful" (cognates: Old Saxon serag, Middle Dutch seerigh "sore; sad, sorry," Dutch zeerig "sore, full of sores," Old High German serag, Swedish sårig "sore, full of sores"), from *sairaz "pain" (physical and mental); related to *saira- "suffering, sick, ill" (see sore (adj.)). Meaning "wretched, worthless, poor" first recorded mid-13c. Spelling shift from -a- to -o- by influence of sorrow. Apologetic sense (short for I'm sorry) is attested from 1834; phrase sorry about that popularized 1960s by U.S. TV show "Get Smart." Related: Sorrily; sorriness.
