dismal English · revision 162
5 Oct 2026, 22:09 by bogdan “Add pronunciation, sense history, timeline, meanings, word family, related words” current version
Changes in this edit
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+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA: /ˈdɪzməl/^(Wiktionary)
+
==Etymology==
From [[enm|dismal]], originally a noun meaning “unlucky days”,^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate) [[bor|xno|dismal]] (mid-13th century),^(Etymonline)^(Wiktionary) apparently from Old French ''dis mal'' “evil days”,^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) [[der|la-med|diēs malī|t=evil days, unlucky days]],^(AHD)^(OED 1989) from Latin ''diēs'' “days” + ''malī'', plural of ''malus'' “bad”.^(AHD)^(Etymonline)
− Medieval calendars marked two days of each month as unlucky,^(MW Collegiate)^(Etymonline) supposedly following the calculations of Egyptian astrologers.^(Etymonline) The word is mentioned in 1256 as the English or Anglo-French name for these days;^(OED 1989) once ''day'' was added (''dismal days''), it came to be used as an adjective,^(OED 1989) and by the 1580s it had been extended to “gloomy, dreary, cheerless”.^(Etymonline)
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ As a noun, the ''dies mali'' or “evil days” of the medieval calendar, also called ''dies Aegyptiaci'' (1256).^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ Medieval calendars marked two days of each month as unlucky,^(MW Collegiate)^(Etymonline) supposedly following the calculations of Egyptian astrologers.^(Etymonline) The word is mentioned in 1256 as the English or Anglo-French name for these days;^(OED 1989) once ''day'' was added (''dismal days''), it came to be used as an adjective,^(OED 1989) and by the 1580s it had been extended to “gloomy, dreary, cheerless”.^(Etymonline) In North America it was the name for tracts of swampy land along the coast of North Carolina (1763),^(Etymonline)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary) and Carlyle called political economy “the dismal science” (1849).^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * 1256 – the ''dies mali'', unlucky days.^(OED 1989)
+ * c. 1300 – ''in the dismal'', “at an unlucky time”.^(Etymonline)
+ * c. 1400 – adjective, of days, “unlucky”.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)
+ * 1580s – “gloomy, dreary, cheerless”.^(Etymonline)
+ * 1588 – “boding misfortune; causing dismay”.^(OED 1989)
+ * 1763 – a swamp in North Carolina.^(Etymonline)
+ * 1849 – ''the dismal science''.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Modern meaning==
+ ===Adjective===
+ # Causing gloom or depression; dreary.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+ # Very poor in quality; inept.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+ # ''(obsolete)'' Disastrous, dreadful.^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ===Noun===
+ # ''(Southern US)'' A tract of swampy land along the coast.^(AHD)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[dismally]]
+ * [[dismalness]]
+ * [[Dismal Swamp]]
+ * [[Great Dismal Swamp]]
==References==