sorry

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English sārig; cognate with Low German sērig, Old High German sērag. See sore, -y¹

5. See wretched.

Sorry has been in written English since the time of King Alfred the Great (849–899), the word first appearing in his translation of Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy. In Book 1, King Alfred writes that Orpheus, having lost Eurydice, “became so sad ( sārig ) that he could not be among other men.” Sārig “feeling grief, sad, sorrowful” is an adjective derived from the Old English noun sār “mental or bodily pain or suffering” ( sār is also an adjective meaning “painful, sore, grievous”). Sār (noun and adjective) is akin to Old High German ser “painful” and the German adverb sehr “very” (as in the King James Bible, e.g., Luke’s Gospel 2:9, “They were sore afraid”).
There is no etymological connection between sār, sārig and Old English sorh, sorg “care, anxiety” (English sorrow ), which is akin to German Sorge “care, anxiety.” But even in Old English times, there was the semantic connection of “suffering” between sār, sārig and sorh, sorg. The Middle English change of sārig to sōri, then to sori (the change of long o in sōri to the short o in sori is due to the influence of the noun sorrowe ), and the Middle English change of sorh, sorg to sorye, soro, sorrowe created a close formal resemblance between sārig (in one Middle English spelling sori ) and sorh, sorg (in the Middle English spellings sorye, soro, sorrowe ), and sorrow has influenced the meaning of sorry ever since.