different between unhappy vs pitiable

English

Etymology

un- +? happy

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?hæpi/
• Rhymes: -æpi

Adjective

unhappy (comparative unhappier or more unhappy, superlative unhappiest or most unhappy)

1. Not happy; sad.
   • 1728, John Gay, The Beggar's Opera

     A moment of time may make us unhappy forever.

2. Not satisfied; unsatisfied.

   An unhappy customer is unlikely to return to your shop.

3. (chiefly dated) Not lucky; unlucky.

   The doomed lovers must have been born under an unhappy star.
4. (chiefly dated) Not suitable; unsuitable.
   • 1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments

     The people, if they are not strangely bent
     Against our welfare, never will consent
     To this unhappy match, foreboding ill:
     What's it to us, if th' adverse nation will?

Synonyms

• (not happy): See Thesaurus:sad or Thesaurus:lamentable

Antonyms

• happy
• glad
• delighted
• exuberant
• joyous
• joyful

Translations

Noun

unhappy (plural unhappies)

1. An individual who is not happy.
   • 1972, The New Yorker (volume 48, part 1, page 109)

     Leduc, as is true of many other unhappies, is largely a confessional writer: her subject is herself, and her gift is a driving, vivacious power that turns her incurable, inveterate unhappiness into a series of dramas […]

Middle English

Noun

unhappy

1. unhap

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