- miserable (adj.)
- early 15c., "full of misery, causing wretchedness" (of conditions), from Old French miserable "prone to pity, merciful," and directly from Latin miserabilis "pitiable, miserable, deplorable, lamentable," from miserari "to pity, lament, deplore," from miser "wretched" (see miser). Of persons, "existing in a state of misery" it is attested from 1520s.
