Meanings
alternative lacrimæ rerum · alternative lachrymae rerum · alternative lachrymæ rerum
- pluralplural onlyrareThe “tears of things”; the inherent tragedy of existence.
So too is Byles's depiction of Brooke feeling the weight of lacrimae rerum as he looks from the deck of his ship towards the unknown lands in which he will indeed lie buried, and realizes that his duty to his country requires the renunciation of his personal dreams for the future.
2010, Elizabeth Vandiver, Stand in the Trench, Achilles, →ISBN, page 3751 more example
Louis Macneice in a note on Eliot and the Adolescent remarks that “anyhow lacrimae rerum are not a monopoly of the mature adult.” Indeed the lacrimae rerum of the adolescent are likely to be far more bitter and consuming than those of the mature adult learning to care and not to care.
1993, Robert D. Hamner, Critical perspectives on Derek Walcott, →ISBN, page 101
Origin
An allusion to Virgil’s Aeneid (29–19 BC), book I, line 462; Latin: lacrimae (“tears”, the nominative plural form of lacrima, “tear”) + rērum (“of things”, the genitive plural form of rēs, “thing”) = “tears of things”.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
lacrimae rerum. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lacrimae%20rerum
“lacrimae rerum.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lacrimae%20rerum. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lacrimae rerum,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lacrimae%20rerum.
Source: lacrimae rerum on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.