different between disconsolate vs miserable

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin disc?ns?l?tus (“comfortless”), from dis- (“away”) +? c?ns?l?tus (“consoled”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /d?s?k?ns?l?t/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d?s?k?ns?l?t/

Adjective

disconsolate (comparative more disconsolate, superlative most disconsolate)

1. Cheerless, dreary.

   Synonyms: bleak, dreary, downcast; see also Thesaurus:cheerless

   • 2013, Daniel Taylor, Jack Wilshere scores twice to ease Arsenal to victory over Marseille (in The Guardian, 26 November 2013)[1]

     Özil looked a little disconsolate when he was substituted late on, though he did set up Wilshere's second with a lovely pass off the outside of his left boot.

   • 1897, W.S.Maugham, Liza of Lambeth, chapter 1.

     Worst off of all were the very young children, for there had been no rain for weeks, and the street was as dry and clean as a covered court, and, in the lack of mud to wallow in, they sat about the road, disconsolate as poets.

   • 1885, Robert L. Steveson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, chapter 7.

     Sitting close beside it, taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll.

2. Seemingly beyond consolation; inconsolable.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Pleasantness of Religion (sermon)

     overwhelmed with disconsolate sorrow

   Synonyms: dejected, inconsolable, unconsolable

   Antonym: consolable

Derived terms

• disconsolately
• disconsolation
• disconsolateness

Translations

Noun

disconsolate

1. (obsolete) Disconsolateness.

Anagrams

• consolidates

Latin

Adjective

disc?ns?l?te

1. vocative masculine singular of disc?ns?l?tus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French miserable, from Old French, from Latin miserabilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?z(?)??b?l/

Adjective

miserable (comparative miserabler or more miserable, superlative miserablest or most miserable)

1. In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor.

   • Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
2. Very bad (at something); unskilled, incompetent; hopeless.

3. Wretched; worthless; mean; contemptible.

4. (obsolete) Causing unhappiness or misery.
   • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Act III, scene i:

     For what's more miserable than discontent?

5. (obsolete) Avaricious; niggardly; miserly.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Hooker to this entry?)

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "miserable" is often applied: life, condition, state, situation, day, time, creature, person, child, failure, place, world, season, year, week, experience, feeling, work, town, city, wage, job, case, excuse, dog.

Synonyms

• (in a state of misery): See Thesaurus:sad or Thesaurus:lamentable
• (very bad (at)): See Thesaurus:unskilled
• (wretched): See Thesaurus:despicable or Thesaurus:insignificant
• (causing unhappiness): See Thesaurus:lamentable
• (miserly): See Thesaurus:stingy or Thesaurus:greedy

Derived terms

Related terms

• miser
• misery

Translations

Noun

miserable (plural miserables)

1. A miserable person; a wretch.
   • 1838, The Foreign Quarterly Review (volume 21, page 181)

     Dona Carmen repaired to the balcony to chat and jest with, and at, these miserables, who stopped before the door to rest in their progress. All pretended poverty while literally groaning under the weight of their riches.

   • 2003, Richard C. Trexler, Reliving Golgotha: The Passion Play of Iztapalapa (pages 46-47)

     The charge that those who played Jesus in these representations were treated badly by the plays' Jews and Romans left one commissioner cold: in his view, these miserables were beaten much less severely by the players than they were by their actual lords or curacas.

2. (informal, in the plural, with definite article) A state of misery or melancholy.
   • 1984, Barbara Wernecke Durkin, Oh, You Dundalk Girls, Can't You Dance the Polka? (page 10)

     By 3:00 P.M. both DeeDee and Sandra's pants were thoroughly soaked, and this unhappy circumstance gave DeeDee a bad case of the miserables.

Anagrams

• marbelise, marbleise

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin miser?bilis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /mi.z???a.bl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /mi.ze??a.ble/

Adjective

miserable (masculine and feminine plural miserables)

1. miserable

Spanish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin miser?bilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mise??able/, [mi.se??a.??le]

Adjective

miserable (plural miserables)

1. miserable
2. poor
3. greedy, stingy

Related terms

• mísero
• miseria