Wrecche

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An unhappy, poor or pitiable person who suffers hardship ; describing someone or something in a sorry, miserable or deplorable state
2. A pitiful individual who is deserving of sympathy because of hardship ; a term for a state of being distressed, sorrowful or badly off
3. A miserable, unlucky soul who endures suffering ; used of a person or condition that is unhappy, poor or distressingly wretched

Etymology: In Old English, "wrecca" meant an exile or wanderer, someone driven from home with nothing to his name, and it carried no insult. The Middle English spelling "wrecche" preserves that older world, and the word only drifted toward pity and contempt as the sense of hardship took over. The root is the Old English verb "wrecan", meaning to drive, punish, or avenge, which also gave modern English "wreak". The word's original sense was therefore tied to being pursued or driven out, and "wretch" came to describe the miserable state of such a person rather than the act of being cast out.