miser
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English misser, from Late Latin miser (“wretched, unfortunate, unhappy, miserable, sick, ill, bad, worthless, etc.”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]miser (plural misers)
- (derogatory) A person who hoards money rather than spending it; one who is cheap or extremely parsimonious. [late 16th c.]
- Synonym: see Thesaurus:miser
- Scrooge was a typical miser: spending nothing he could save, nor enjoying his wealth.
- 1577, Antonio de Guevara, translated by Edward Hellowes, A Chronicle, Conteyning the Liues of Tenne Emperours of Rome […] , London: Ralph Newbery, page 257:
- […] foꝛ it was many times notoꝛious vnto al mẽ, yͭ he did eate in his houſe no other fleſh by the ſpace of iii. dayes, but on Hare, whiche was ſent him. He was ſuch a miſer to ſpend, ⁊ ſo deſirous to hooꝛd and lay vp money, yͭ had it not béene foꝛ ſome dayes of ſacrifices, oꝛ his bidden gueſts, not a moꝛsel of fleſh was eaten in his houſe: but only fed of his pꝛouiſion from his garden.
- (obsolete) A person who is wretched or despicable; a wretch.
- c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv], page 206, column 1:
- […] a poore virgin ſir, an il-fauor’d thing ſir, but mine owne, a poore humour of mine ſir, to take that that no man elſe will: rich honeſtie dwels like a miſer ſir, in a poore houſe, as your Pearle in your foule oyſter.
- A kind of earth auger, typically large-bored and often hand-operated.
Antonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]skinflint or scrooge
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “miser”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “miser”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “miser”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
[edit]French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]miser
Conjugation
[edit]Conjugation of miser (see also Appendix:French verbs)
infinitive | simple | miser | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
present participle or gerund1 | simple | misant /mi.zɑ̃/ | |||||
compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
past participle | misé /mi.ze/ | ||||||
singular | plural | ||||||
first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | mise /miz/ |
mises /miz/ |
mise /miz/ |
misons /mi.zɔ̃/ |
misez /mi.ze/ |
misent /miz/ |
imperfect | misais /mi.zɛ/ |
misais /mi.zɛ/ |
misait /mi.zɛ/ |
misions /mi.zjɔ̃/ |
misiez /mi.zje/ |
misaient /mi.zɛ/ | |
past historic2 | misai /mi.ze/ |
misas /mi.za/ |
misa /mi.za/ |
misâmes /mi.zam/ |
misâtes /mi.zat/ |
misèrent /mi.zɛʁ/ | |
future | miserai /miz.ʁe/ |
miseras /miz.ʁa/ |
misera /miz.ʁa/ |
miserons /miz.ʁɔ̃/ |
miserez /miz.ʁe/ |
miseront /miz.ʁɔ̃/ | |
conditional | miserais /miz.ʁɛ/ |
miserais /miz.ʁɛ/ |
miserait /miz.ʁɛ/ |
miserions /mi.zə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
miseriez /mi.zə.ʁje/ |
miseraient /miz.ʁɛ/ | |
(compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | mise /miz/ |
mises /miz/ |
mise /miz/ |
misions /mi.zjɔ̃/ |
misiez /mi.zje/ |
misent /miz/ |
imperfect2 | misasse /mi.zas/ |
misasses /mi.zas/ |
misât /mi.za/ |
misassions /mi.za.sjɔ̃/ |
misassiez /mi.za.sje/ |
misassent /mi.zas/ | |
(compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
imperative | – | – | – | ||||
simple | — | mise /miz/ |
— | misons /mi.zɔ̃/ |
misez /mi.ze/ |
— | |
compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). |
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- → Romanian: miza
Further reading
[edit]- “miser”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
[edit]Latin
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Proto-Italic *misseros, of unknown origin. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *mēwdʰ- (“to complain, be emotional about”), the same root of Latin maereō[1] and Ancient Greek μῖσος (mîsos, “hatred”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈmi.ser/, [ˈmɪs̠ɛr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈmi.ser/, [ˈmiːs̬er]
Adjective
[edit]miser (feminine misera, neuter miserum, comparative miserior, superlative miserrimus, adverb miserē or miseriter); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)
- poor, wretched, pitiful
- ca. 54 BC, Catullus. Catullus 8
- Miser Catulle, dēsinās ineptīre
- Poor Catullus, stop with the nonsense
- Miser Catulle, dēsinās ineptīre
- 29 bc. Vergil. Aeneid, Book I
- nōn ignāra malī miserīs succurrere discō
- being not unacquainted with woe, I learn to help the unfortunate
- nōn ignāra malī miserīs succurrere discō
- 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 6.517:
- ‘dīque virīque locī, miserae succurrite mātrī!’
- “Gods and men of this place, hasten [your] aid to a wretched mother!”
(The poetic voice is that of Ino (Greek mythology).)
- “Gods and men of this place, hasten [your] aid to a wretched mother!”
- ‘dīque virīque locī, miserae succurrite mātrī!’
- ca. 54 BC, Catullus. Catullus 8
- miserable, unhappy
- worthless, null
- tragic, unfortunate
- sick
- tormenting
Declension
[edit]First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).
singular | plural | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | masculine | feminine | neuter | ||
nominative | miser | misera | miserum | miserī | miserae | misera | |
genitive | miserī | miserae | miserī | miserōrum | miserārum | miserōrum | |
dative | miserō | miserae | miserō | miserīs | |||
accusative | miserum | miseram | miserum | miserōs | miserās | misera | |
ablative | miserō | miserā | miserō | miserīs | |||
vocative | miser | misera | miserum | miserī | miserae | misera |
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- Eastern Romance:
- Italian: misero
- Old French: mezre
- → Catalan: míser
- → Portuguese: mísero
- → Spanish: mísero
- → Albanian: mjerë[2] (disputed)
- → English: miser
- → Romanian: mizer
References
[edit]- “miser”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “miser”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- miser in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- (ambiguous) to live a happy (unhappy) life: vitam beatam (miseram) degere
- (ambiguous) to live a happy (unhappy) life: vitam beatam (miseram) degere
- H. H. Mallinckrodt, Latijn Nederlands woordenboek (Aula n° 24), Utrecht-Antwerpen, Spectrum, 1959 [Latin - Dutch dictionary in Dutch]
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “miser”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 383
- ^ Orel, Vladimir E. (1998) “mjerë”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, →ISBN, page 270
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/aɪzə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/aɪzə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English derogatory terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:People
- French terms suffixed with -er
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French verbs
- fr:Gambling
- French verbs with conjugation -er
- French first group verbs
- Latin terms inherited from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin 2-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin adjectives
- Latin first and second declension adjectives with nominative masculine singular in -er
- Latin first and second declension adjectives
- Latin terms with quotations
- Latin words in Meissner and Auden's phrasebook