What are the different ways to say "lonely"?

Question

The English word "lonely" has at least a couple different uses. A person can be lonely — we all know, and have probably felt, this meaning of the word. But also a place can be lonely. A lot of people refer to NYC and London as lonely cities.

I wanted to know, what are the different Latin words for "lonely", and what are their different connotations? I have come up with two candidates myself, solum and desertum, and I'm wondering whether solum is better suited to people or things, and desertum to places.

Is there a Latin word that has connotations similar to the English "lonely", e.g. sadness?

Answer 1

For a lonely place I would use the noun solitudo. L&S describes it, among other things, as "loneliness", "solitude (of a person or place)", and "a lonely place". This word refers to the state of loneliness in a broader sense than any English word. I would probably use this word for all of the cases you describe.

If you want to cry "how lonely!" as you did in the chat, one possible Latin translation would be qualis solitudo! There might be other ways of forming such exclamations with nouns, but qualis has famous precedent. Remember the famous qualis artifex pereo! by Nero?

You may view it as a problem or an opportunity, but bear in mind that solitudo is a noun, unlike the English "lonely". If you want an adjective instead, I would recommend the related solitarius. I would be ready to use this for all of your example cases, but that doesn't mean that there wouldn't be more idiomatic choices for some other situations.