interjection/e.las/
alas; exclamatory or declarative conjunction expressing affliction, regret, disappointment.
“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."”
Related: hélas non
Inherited from Old French elas, variant of a las, from a (“ah”) + las, from Latin lassus (“weary”).