different between harmful vs deplorable

English

Alternative forms

• harmfull (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English harmful, from Old English *hearmful (suggested by hearmfull?? (“harmful; hurtful”)), equivalent to harm +? -ful.

Cognate with German harmvoll, Danish harmfuld, Swedish harmfull.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?h??mfl?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?h??mfl?/

Adjective

harmful (comparative harmfuller or more harmful, superlative harmfullest or most harmful)

1. of a kind likely to be damaging; injurious

   Wear a hat to protect your skin from harmful sunlight.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "harmful" is often applied: effect, consequence, impact, influence, emission, chemical, ingredient, substance, gas, agent, additive, drug, radiation, dust, organism, plant, animal, insect, action, act, behavior, component, content, activity, interference, use.

Synonyms

• injurious; see also Thesaurus:harmful

Antonyms

• beneficial
• harmless

Translations

See also

• harm

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French déplorable, from Late Latin d?pl?r?bilis., from d?- +? pl?r? +? -bilis.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??pl????b??/

Adjective

deplorable (comparative more deplorable, superlative most deplorable)

1. Deserving strong condemnation; shockingly bad, wretched.
2. To be felt sorrow for; worthy of compassion; lamentable.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe

     There was a youth and his mother, and a maidservant on board, who were going passengers, and thinking the ship was ready to sail, unhappily came on board the evening before the hurricane began; and having no provisions of their own left, they were in a more deplorable condition than the rest.

   • 1840, Public Documents of the State of Maine, "Report Relating to the Insane Hospital", Committee on Public Buildings

     If, however, the early symptoms of insanity be neglected till the brain becomes accustomed to the irregular actions of disease, or till organic changes take place from the early violence of those actions, then the case becomes hopeless of cure. In this situation, in too many cases, the victim of this deplorable malady is cast off by his friends, thrust into a dungeon or in chains, there to remain till the shattered intellect shall exhaust all its remaining energies in perpetual raving and violence, till it sinks into hopeless and deplorable idiocy.

Synonyms

• pathetic

Translations

Noun

deplorable (plural deplorables)

1. A person or thing that is to be deplored.
   • 1970, Esquire (volume 74)

     […] heralding, this season, an end of the most awful of all apparel abominations, that most despicable of all deplorables, the ankle sock.

2. (neologism, US politics) A Trumpist conservative, in reference to a 2016 speech by Hillary Clinton calling half of Donald Trump's supporters a "basket of deplorables".

Further reading

• deplorable at OneLook Dictionary Search
• deplorable in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Middle French

Etymology

Late 15th century, borrowed from Latin d?pl?r?bilis.

Adjective

deplorable m or f (plural deplorables)

1. deplorable (worthy of compassion)

Spanish

Etymology

From Late Latin d?pl?r?bilis, equivalent to deplorar +? -able.

Adjective

deplorable (plural deplorables)

1. deplorable