alack
/əˈlak
/(also alack-a-day)
exclamation archaic
Used to express regret or dismay.But, alas and alack… no willing extra hands around....
- I'd like to celebrate some of the salient contributors to our durance and, alack, I'm sure to forget or miss mentioning some, and for that, I apologize in advance.
- For, alas and alack, or some such, the carefully tuned brand new design that seemed perfectly acceptable on the old exhausted monitor looks really, really crummy on one that shows colour properly.
Origin
Late Middle English: probably from ah + lack.
alas from Middle English:
This expression of dismay is from Old French a las, a lasse, from a ‘ah’ and las(se), from Latin lassus ‘weary’. Late Middle English alack is a comparable exclamation, from a ‘ah!’ and lak ‘lack’. It originally expressed dissatisfaction and the notion ‘shame that it should be the case’; this came to convey regret or surprise, as in alack-a-day.