Miserable

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹəbəl/

Definitions

1. Feeling or causing great unhappiness, discomfort, or wretchedness; of poor quality or very small in amount
2. Experiencing deep sadness or distress ; having a quality so low or an amount so small as to be unsatisfactory
3. Feeling very bad emotionally or physically ; being of notably poor standard or insufficient quantity

Etymology: Few people would guess that "miserable" once described a person who deserved pity rather than one who felt pitiful. Its Latin ancestor, "miserabilis," meant "pitiable" or "wretched," and it was built from "miser," meaning "wretched" or "unhappy," with the suffix "-abilis" (later "-able") that marks something capable of being acted upon or deserving a certain response. A miserable thing was thus one that merited pity, and the sense of the person who was pitied came first. The word reached English by way of Middle French "miserable," which had itself come from Old French. Over time the emphasis moved from the object of pity to the state of the sufferer, so that "miserable" came to describe the one feeling wretched rather than the one deserving sympathy. The modern meaning of feeling very unhappy is the result of that shift.

Synonyms: unhappy, sorrowful, wretched, dejected, distressed

Antonyms: happy, joyful, content, cheerful, blissful