different between helpless vs pitiable

English

Etymology

From Middle English helples, from Old English *helpl?as (“helpless”) from Proto-Germanic *help?lausaz, equivalent to help +? -less. Compare Dutch hulpeloos (“helpless”), German hilflos (“helpless”), Swedish hjälplös (“helpless”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h?lpl?s/
• Hyphenation: help?less

Adjective

helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless)

1. Unable to defend oneself.
   • 1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?

     Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her arms

     You know you really love a woman

2. Lacking help; powerless.
3. Unable to act without help; needing help; feeble.
4. Uncontrollable.

   a helpless urge

5. (obsolete) From which there is no possibility of being saved.

   • For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,
     They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.

Derived terms

• helplessly
• helplessness

Translations

Further reading

• helpless in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• helpless in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From Middle French [Term?], from Old French piteable. Surface etymology is piti- +? -able

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?ti.?b?l/

Adjective

pitiable (comparative more pitiable, superlative most pitiable)

1. That deserves, evokes or can be given pity; pitiful.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:lamentable

Translations