hélas

Inherited from Old French elas, variant of a las, from a (“ah”) + las, from Latin lassus (“weary”).

• ^{(aspirated or mute h)} IPA^(key): /e.las/
• (Louisiana) IPA^(key): /e.la/ ~ /e.lɑ/

• Audio:

  (file)

hélas

1. alas; exclamatory or declarative conjunction expressing affliction, regret, disappointment.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):

     Tough Abbé Maury, when the obscure country Royalist grasps his hand with transport of thanks, answers, rolling his indomitable brazen head: "Hélas, Monsieur, all that I do here is as good as simply nothing."

• hélas non

• → Dutch: helaas

See héler.

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /e.la/

hélas

1. second-person singular past historic of héler

hélas m (plural hélas)

1. (Louisiana) noise

   Synonym: bruit m

• “hélas”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• hales, halés, hâles