Etymologically
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misere

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Forms

miserē (comparative miserius, superlative miserrimē); adverb[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin miser (“wretched”) + -ē.[1][2] De Vaan traces miser to Proto-Italic *misro-, perhaps related to maereō (“to grieve”), but finds no acceptable older pedigree.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.[2] In the OLD's earliest quotation Plautus has someone cry that he is wretchedly undone.[1]

Semantic evolution

It is wretchedly, pitifully, in a way that calls for pity.[1] With a disparaging force it is pitifully badly: Fronto says he has written a little piece pitifully badly.[1] Of feelings felt to the point of pain it is desperately, to distraction: in Plautus a man loves a girl desperately.[1] Terence has someone envy desperately and wish desperately for something.[4] Horace also uses it.[4] Church Latin glosses it miserably, wretchedly.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of being wretchedly undone and of desperate love.[1][2]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of desperate wishing.[4][2]
  • 100–170 AD – Fronto of writing badly.[1][2]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Wretchedly, miserably, pitifully; pitifully badly.[1][6][5]
  2. Desperately, to distraction.[1][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  3. ^ 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org