lonely vs. lonesome?

[Beverly Flanigan]

This country/farm-based Minnesotan only used "lonesome" as a kid.  "Lonely"
was added much later as an "educated" term.

At 01:37 PM 8/26/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>I find the human connection of lonely/lonesome quite interesting.
>Dennis's contrastive sentence "A lonesome whistle is one which evokes
>lonely feelings in the listeners" is particularly striking. I'd like to
>study the question further. Here are some common expressions for
>analysis:
>
>LONELY (in senses of "being alone and gloomy; [attrib.] alone and
>isolated")
>a lonely bachelor, widow; feeling depressed and lonely; sad and lonely;
>lonely and homesick; the lonely hearts column; the lonely desert night;
>a cold and lonely world; a lonely lingering death; a lonely business,
>childhood, journey, life, look, house, place, road, trail, traveller,
>tree, village, voice; It's lonely at the top.
>
>LONESOME (in senses of "feeling lonely; causing one to feel lonely;
>solitary")
>a lonesome bachelor, existence, highway, orphan, road.
>
>Incidentally, my database has six times more "lonely" citations than
>"lonesome" ones.
>
>TOM PAIKEDAY
>lexicographer
>www3.sympatico.ca/t.paikeday/index.htm
>
>
>"Dennis R. Preston" wrote:
> >
> > I have a tendency to use lonely with +human ("I'm just lonely boy")
> > and lonesome with -human ("I heard that lonesome whistle blow") to
> > cite from songs, as folk seem to like to do these days.
> >
> > The restriction on "lonely" with -human is strongest; for me, a
> > "lonely whistle" is one longing for company (unlikely); a "lonesome
> > whistle" is one which evokes lonely feelings in its listeners (like a
> > "lonesome sight" does in its viewers, etc...).
> >
> > dInIs
> >
> > >On 25 Aug 2002, at 21:48, Indigo Som wrote:
> > >  Is "lonesome" regularly used outside of country or
> > >>  blues songs?
> > >>
> > >>  Thanks,
> > >>  Indigo
> > >
> > >I tend to think of this as a countryish variant, too.  I associate it
> > >with the writings of Mark Twain. (For example, the opening
> > >sentence of _A Connecticut Yankee_ is: "It was a soft, reposeful
> > >summer landscape, as lovely as a dream, and as lonesome as
> > >Sunday.")  I guess this has no bearing on contemporary use of the
> > >word, but my search of a literature database indicates that it
> > >showed up in authors who dealt in more "sivilized" subjects as well
> > >-- Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, James, Wharton, Stevenson,
> > >Norris, and Gibbon.  Twain had more hits than any individual author
> > >in the database, though.
> > >
> > >Joanne Despres
> >
> > --
> > Dennis R. Preston
> > Professor of Linguistics
> > Department of Linguistics and Languages
> > 740 Wells Hall A
> > Michigan State University
> > East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
> > Office - (517) 353-0740
> > Fax - (517) 432-2736