miserandus

Forms

miserandus (feminine miseranda, neuter miserandum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is the gerundive of miseror (“to pity, bewail”), used as an adjective.^[1][2] The verb comes from miser (“wretched”),^[3] which goes back to Proto-Italic *misro-; it may be connected with maereō (“to grieve”), but no convincing Indo-European source has been found.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is Terence's “a lamentable and wicked deed!”^[1]

Semantic evolution

Of persons it means deserving pity, pitiable, as in Virgil's “alas, pitiable boy”, and Manilius uses it of a lament.^[1] Of circumstances it is lamentable or deplorable, and Tacitus uses it of pitifully inadequate food, telling how Drusus kept himself alive for eight days by chewing the stuffing of his bed.^[1]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of a lamentable deed.^[1][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero.^[4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a pitiable boy.^[1][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of wretched food.^[1][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Pitiable, deserving pity.^[1][2]
2. Lamentable, deplorable.^[1]
3. Pitifully inadequate, wretched.^[1]

Related words

• miseror
• miser

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de