Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Pensive

Pensive , adjective

[French pensif, from penser to think, from Latin pensare to weigh, ponder, consider, v. intens. from pendere to weigh. See Pension, Poise.]

1.
Thoughtful, sober, or sad; employed in serious reflection; given to, or favorable to, earnest or melancholy musing.
The pensive secrecy of desert cell. — Milton
Anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed. — Pope
2.
Expressing or suggesting thoughtfulness with sadness; as, pensive numbers. — Prior