different between miserable vs repugnant

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

Borrowed from Old French repugnant, borrowed from Latin repugnans, present participle of repugnare (“to oppose, to fight against”), from re- (“back, against”) + pugnare (“to fight”); see pugnacious.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???p??n?nt/
• Hyphenation: re?pug?nant

Adjective

repugnant (comparative more repugnant, superlative most repugnant)

1. Offensive or repulsive; arousing disgust or aversion.
2. (law) Opposed or in conflict.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "repugnant" is often applied: act, nature, behavior, practice, character, thing, crime.

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• pregnaunt

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin repugn?ns, attested from 1803.

Adjective

repugnant (masculine and feminine plural repugnants)

1. repugnant, revolting

Related terms

• repugnància
• repugnar

Further reading

• “repugnant” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “repugnant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “repugnant” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

References

Latin

Verb

repugnant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of repugn?

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French repugnant.

Adjective

repugnant m (feminine singular repugnante, masculine plural repugnans, feminine plural repugnantes)

1. repugnant; repulsive

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin repugnans, repugnantem.

Adjective

repugnant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular repugnant or repugnante)

1. contradictory
2. opposing; adversary

Descendants

• ? English: repugnant
• Middle French: repugnant
  • French: répugnant

Romanian

Etymology

From French répugnant.

Adjective

repugnant m or n (feminine singular repugnant?, masculine plural repugnan?i, feminine and neuter plural repugnante)

1. repugnant

Declension