Worser

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. An informal comparative term used to indicate something of lower quality or more unfavorable condition than another; a nonstandard variant expressing a greater degree of badness or inferiority; a colloquial or dialectal form used for emphasis on worseness
2. A nonstandard comparative form suggesting an increase in negative qualities or a more undesirable state than previously; an informal adjective used to describe something more unpleasant or harmful; a vernacular expression emphasizing deterioration or decline
3. A colloquial or archaic comparative expression denoting something more inferior or problematic than a given reference; an informal word to highlight increased severity or negativity; a usage found in dialectal English to convey relative worsening

Etymology: "Worser" is a double comparative: it stacks the comparative ending "-er" onto "worse," which is already the comparative of "bad." English speakers have long known that "worse" itself is a comparative, so adding a second "-er" makes the form redundant, which is why it sits uneasily in formal writing even though it is a real and widely recognized word. The history of "worse" runs back through Old English "wiersa," from Proto-Germanic "wirsizô," a form that had already taken on comparative meaning. The root is an older Indo-European one, and the "-er" ending comes from a separate comparative suffix that had its own path through Old English "-ra" and Middle English "-ere." When the two were joined, the result was a word meaning "even more unpleasant," a sense built directly on the sense of its base.

Synonyms: worse

Antonyms: better, best