Etymologically
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malheureux

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ma.lœ.ʁø/[1]

Forms

malheureux (feminine malheureuse, masculine plural malheureux, feminine plural malheureuses)[1] Old French maleüros (mid-11th century), malëurus (1155), maleüreus (about 1175); malheureux from the 15th century.[2][3] Old French also used another form, malheuré.[4]

Etymology

It is from French malheur + -eux,[3][5][6][2] or mal- with heureux, as Littré and Wiktionary analyse it.[4][1] malheur is mal and the old noun heur (“luck”), which continues Vulgar Latin *agūrium, an altered form of augurium (“omen, augury”);[7][8] as pagan beliefs faded the word came to mean “luck, good or bad”.[7]

Compare Old Occitan malauros.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wace's Brut (1155) says of a person weighed down by misfortune Dolenz fud e malëurus “he was grieving and unhappy”; the GLLF and the Grand Robert date maleüros to the mid-11th century.[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Chrétien de Troyes's Chevalier au lion (1176–81) has it as a noun and in the sense “deserving pity”.[3] In the 15th century (Perceforest) it meant “unlucky” of a person and “having an unfortunate outcome” of a thing.[3][2] Later senses include “baleful” (Du Bellay, 1558), “regrettable” (Amyot, 1567: acte bien malheureux et meschant), and, by extension, “contemptible”, of a person (Pascal, 1656); the exclamation Malheureux ! is in Racine's Bajazet (1672).[3][4] Furetière (1690) records both “boding ill” (une malheureuse physionomie) and “paltry, insignificant” (un malheureux arpent de pré).[3]

Phrases include malheureux comme les pierres (Balzac, 1834), avoir la main malheureuse (1867) and amour malheureux (Rousseau, 1761);[2] the ironic ce n'est pas malheureux ! “and about time too!” is found in Henry Monnier (1841).[9]

Timeline

  • Mid-11th century – Maleüros.[2][5]
  • 1155 – Malëurus, Wace.[3]
  • 1176–81 – As a noun, “pitiable”, Chrétien de Troyes.[3]
  • 15th century – “Unlucky”, Perceforest.[3]
  • 1567 – “Regrettable”, Amyot.[3]
  • 1656 – “Contemptible”, Pascal.[3]
  • 1690 – “Paltry”, Furetière.[3]
  • 1834 – Malheureux comme les pierres, Balzac.[2]
  • 1841 – Ce n'est pas malheureux ![9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. unhappy, miserable; struck by misfortune: rendre quelqu'un malheureux, malheureux comme les pierres.[6][1]
  2. unlucky, unfortunate: un candidat malheureux, avoir la main malheureuse.[2][3]
  3. Of a thing, having bad consequences; regrettable: une initiative malheureuse, un amour malheureux.[3][2]
  4. (before the noun) Paltry, insignificant: un malheureux billet de dix euros.[3][1]
  5. (familiar) Ce n'est pas malheureux !: at last![9]

Noun

  1. An unhappy or unfortunate person; a poor wretch, malheureux !, you wretch![6][3]

Word family

  • malheureusement

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  4. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 890b
  9. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF