Chagrin Definition

Origin of Chagrin

• From dialectical French chagraigner (“to be gloomy, distress”), from chat (“cat”) + Old French graim (“sorrow, gloom; sorrowful, gloomy”), from Frankish gram, a loan translation of German Katzenjammer (“drunken hang-over”), from Katzen (“cats”) + jammer (“distress, sorrow, lament”). Akin to German Gram, Old Norse gramr (“wroth”) (whence Danish gram), Old English grama (“anger”), grim (“grim, gloomy”) (Modern English grim).

  From Wiktionary

• Another theory derives French chagrin from the verb chagriner, in its turn from Old French grigner, which is of Germanic origin and cognate to English grin.. More at cat, grim, grimace, grin, yammer.

  From Wiktionary

• French possibly from dialectal French chagraigner to distress, become gloomy from Old French graim sorrowful, gloomy of Germanic origin

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

• From French chagrin (“sorrow”). Prior to that, the etymology is unclear, with several theories – of Germanic.

  From Wiktionary