a. Also Werterian, -ean. [f. G. Werther, the hero of Goethe’s romance ‘Die Leiden des jungen Werther’ (1774), + -IAN.] Morbidly sentimental.
1831. Carlyle, Sartor Res., II. v. Their mad Petrarchan and Werterean ware.
1850. Fraser’s Mag., Sept., 249. Some who are accustomed to consider that poem [Locksley Hall] as Werterian and unhealthy.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xli. The Byronic despair, the Wertherian despondency.
1857. Trollope, Barchester T., xxxiv. An ancient love-lorn swain … full of imaginary sorrows and Wertherian grief.
