Where does “misery” come from?
Misery comes from Old French miserie, from Latin miseria meaning wretchedness, from miser meaning wretched, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mēwdʰ-.
misery (English): Great :unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind;...
Definitions
- Great :unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind;...
Ancestry of “misery”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | miserie | — |
| 2 | Old French | miserie | — |
| 3 | Latin | miseria | misfortune; misery, distress, affliction |
| 4 | Latin | miser | poor, wretched, pitiful; miserable, unhappy;... |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | misseros | — |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | mēwdʰ- | to complain, be emotional about; to complain or... |
Words derived from “misery”