different between miserable vs compassionate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French miserable, from Old French, from Latin miserabilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?z(?)??b?l/

Adjective

miserable (comparative miserabler or more miserable, superlative miserablest or most miserable)

1. In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor.

   • Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
2. Very bad (at something); unskilled, incompetent; hopeless.

3. Wretched; worthless; mean; contemptible.

4. (obsolete) Causing unhappiness or misery.
   • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Act III, scene i:

     For what's more miserable than discontent?

5. (obsolete) Avaricious; niggardly; miserly.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Hooker to this entry?)

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "miserable" is often applied: life, condition, state, situation, day, time, creature, person, child, failure, place, world, season, year, week, experience, feeling, work, town, city, wage, job, case, excuse, dog.

Synonyms

• (in a state of misery): See Thesaurus:sad or Thesaurus:lamentable
• (very bad (at)): See Thesaurus:unskilled
• (wretched): See Thesaurus:despicable or Thesaurus:insignificant
• (causing unhappiness): See Thesaurus:lamentable
• (miserly): See Thesaurus:stingy or Thesaurus:greedy

Derived terms

Related terms

• miser
• misery

Translations

Noun

miserable (plural miserables)

1. A miserable person; a wretch.
   • 1838, The Foreign Quarterly Review (volume 21, page 181)

     Dona Carmen repaired to the balcony to chat and jest with, and at, these miserables, who stopped before the door to rest in their progress. All pretended poverty while literally groaning under the weight of their riches.

   • 2003, Richard C. Trexler, Reliving Golgotha: The Passion Play of Iztapalapa (pages 46-47)

     The charge that those who played Jesus in these representations were treated badly by the plays' Jews and Romans left one commissioner cold: in his view, these miserables were beaten much less severely by the players than they were by their actual lords or curacas.

2. (informal, in the plural, with definite article) A state of misery or melancholy.
   • 1984, Barbara Wernecke Durkin, Oh, You Dundalk Girls, Can't You Dance the Polka? (page 10)

     By 3:00 P.M. both DeeDee and Sandra's pants were thoroughly soaked, and this unhappy circumstance gave DeeDee a bad case of the miserables.

Anagrams

• marbelise, marbleise

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin miser?bilis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /mi.z???a.bl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /mi.ze??a.ble/

Adjective

miserable (masculine and feminine plural miserables)

1. miserable

Spanish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin miser?bilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mise??able/, [mi.se??a.??le]

Adjective

miserable (plural miserables)

1. miserable
2. poor
3. greedy, stingy

Related terms

• mísero
• miseria

English

Etymology

A pseudo-Latin form of French compassionné, past participle of compassionner (“feel sorry for”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, adjective) IPA^(key): /k?m?pæ??n?t/
• (UK, verb) IPA^(key): /k?m?pæ??ne?t/

Adjective

compassionate (comparative more compassionate, superlative most compassionate)

1. Having, feeling or showing compassion (to or toward someone).

   Synonyms: empathetic, sympathetic, ruthful

   (names given to God in Islam)

   • 1611, John Donne, An Anatomy of the World, London: Samuel Macham,^[1]

     As a compassionate Turcoyse which doth tell

     By looking pale, the wearer is not well,

   • 1675, Robert South, A Sermon preached at Christ-Church, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, London: Thomas Bennett, 1692, p. 574,^[2]

     […] there never was any heart truly great and generous, that was not also tender, and compassionate.

   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, London: Bradbury and Evans, Chapter 49, p. 502,^[3]

     He was by nature so exceedingly compassionate of anyone who seemed to be ill at ease […] that he shook hands with Mr. Micawber, at least half-a-dozen times in five minutes.

   • 2007, Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Orlando: Harcourt, Chapter 7, p. 99,^[4]

     […] the compassionate pangs I felt for soon-to-be redundant workers were not overwhelming in their frequency; our job required a degree of commitment that left one with rather limited time for such distractions.

2. Given to someone as an exception because of a family emergency or a death in their family.

3. (obsolete) Inviting or asking for pity.

   Synonym: pitiable

   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act I, Scene 3,^[5]

     It boots thee not to be compassionate:

     After our sentence plaining comes too late.

Derived terms

• compassionately
• compassionateness
• uncompassionate

Translations

Verb

compassionate (third-person singular simple present compassionates, present participle compassionating, simple past and past participle compassionated)

1. (transitive, archaic) To feel compassion (for someone or with regard to something); to regard (someone or something) with compassion.

   Synonyms: pity, feel sorry for

   • 1602, Thomas Lodge (translator), The Famous and Memorable Workes of Josephus, London: G. Bishop et al., Chapter 6, p. 733,^[6]

     […] seeing them die so wofully in the flames, he compassionated them.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 6, p. 83,^[7]

     The Justice which Mr. Allworthy had executed on Partridge, at first met with universal Approbation; but no sooner had he felt its Consequences, than his Neighbours began to relent, and to compassionate his Case;

   • 1794, William Godwin, Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, London: B. Crosby, Volume 2, Chapter 1, p. 4,^[8]

     And yet I could not help bitterly compassionating the honest fellow, brought to the gallows, as he was, strictly speaking, by the machinations of that devil incarnate, Mr. Tyrrel.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, London: Smith, Elder, Volume 1, Chapter 3, p. 38,^[9]

     “ […] if she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that.”

Translations

Italian

Verb

compassionate

1. second-person plural present indicative of compassionare
2. second-person plural imperative of compassionare
3. feminine plural of compassionato