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Mr. Tom Posted 7 years ago
Grammar

Disconsolate vs. Inconsolable

Hi

I was slightly surprised to check the N-grams here.

Disconsolate -- Inconsolable

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=disconsolate%2C+inconsolable&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cdisconsolate%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cinconsolable%3B%2Cc0

Would you say that the two words are equally common? In fact, disconsolate was much more in use a few decades ago.

Thanks,

Tom

  

Top answer

Mr. Tom Would you say that the two words are equally common? To me there does not seem a big difference -- at least, I would not have been able to say which was more common.

— GPY

  • Mr.
  • Tom Would you say that the two words are equally common?
  • To me there does not seem a big difference -- at least, I would not have been able to say which was more common.
  • Both seem moderately uncommon higher-register words.
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2 Answers
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Mr. TomWould you say that the two words are equally common?

To me there does not seem a big difference -- at least, I would not have been able to say which was more common. Both seem moderately uncommon higher-register words.

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Mr. TomWould you say that the two words are equally common?

No, because my own experience is that I encounter 'inconsolable' more often than 'disconsolate'.

They're are not exactly synonyms in my mind, either. I think of 'disconsolate' as more or less a fancy synonym for unhappy, while I think of 'inconsolable' as a more extreme condition akin to dep

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