different between misfortune vs hoodoo

English

Etymology

mis- +? fortune

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /m?s?f??t??n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /m?s?f??t?u?n/

Noun

misfortune (countable and uncountable, plural misfortunes)

1. (uncountable) Bad luck.
   • 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track

     Cycling's complex etiquette contains an unwritten rule that riders in contention for a race win should not be penalised for sheer misfortune.

   The worst tour I have ever had the misfortune to experience.

   It was my fortune, or misfortune, to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training. - Ulysses S. Grant

2. (countable) an undesirable event such as an accident
   • 1839, Charles Robert Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle., Chapter X

     The snowstorm, which was the cause of their misfortune, happened in the middle of January, corresponding to our July, and in the latitude of Durham!

   She had to come to terms with a number of misfortunes.

Synonyms

• (bad luck): mishap, misluck, mischance, ill luck, hard luck, tough luck, luckless
• (undesirable event): adversity, nakba

Antonyms

• (bad luck): luck, good luck, fortune, good fortune
• (undesirable event): fortuity

Related terms

• misfortunate

Translations

Anagrams

• uniformest

English

Etymology

Apparently an alteration of voodoo.

Noun

hoodoo (countable and uncountable, plural hoodoos)

1. (chiefly US) A practitioner of voodoo.
2. (chiefly US) Supernatural bad luck, or something or someone believed to bring bad luck.
3. (geology) A tall thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of arid basins and badlands.
   • 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster 2014, p. 71:

     It was even larger than the mirage made it look—a dozen miles across and a thousand feet deep, with fins and towers and hoodoos like observation posts, mesas and minor buttes, springs flowing brightly in the red rock.

Synonyms

• (spire of rock): tent rock, fairy chimney, earth pyramid

Translations

Verb

hoodoo (third-person singular simple present hoodoos, present participle hoodooing, simple past and past participle hoodooed)

1. (transitive) To jinx; to bring bad luck or misfortune to.

References

• “hoodoo”, Bill Casselman