dismal English · revision 42

+ ==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)

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+ 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)

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}