Bleakish

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Somewhat gloomy, dreary, or lacking in warmth and cheerfulness
2. Somewhat dark and uninviting while conveying a sense of sadness or hopelessness
3. Characterized by a minor degree of desolation or a muted, cheerless atmosphere

Etymology: "Bleakish" is simply "bleak" with the suffix "-ish" added, meaning "somewhat bleak." The suffix "-ish" comes from Old English "-isc," which gave English a general way of saying "having the quality of" or "rather like," as in "reddish" or "childish." The base word "bleak" has a more interesting past. It descends from Old English "blāc," meaning "pale" or "shining white," and it was used for bare, pale-coloured things long before it described weather or mood. A bleak landscape was once one that looked pale and exposed, and the sense of cold, windswept desolation developed from that picture of bare, whitened ground. Put together, "bleakish" describes something that carries a faint trace of that exposed, colourless desolation without tipping fully into it, such as a grey afternoon that is not quite cheerless but not cheerful either.

Synonyms: dreary, desolate, gloomy, dismal, harsh

Antonyms: cheerful, bright, joyful, optimistic, pleasant