dire-

(Latin: fearful, awful, boding ill, ill-omened, horrible, terrible)

diarist, direst
diarist (DIGH uh rist)
An individual who writes a journal or diary: "Samuel Pepys was considered a great diarist of the Seventeenth Century."
direst (DIGHR ist)
Fearful or dreadful: "The pirate captain threatened the direst of punishments to the crew if they disobeyed him."

The author was considered a significant diarist of her times as she chronicled the direst of events with compassion and insight.

dire
1. Warning of or having dreadful or terrible consequences; calamitous: "He presented a dire economic forecast."
2. Characterized by severe, serious, or desperate circumstances: "They were in dire need because of the hurricane which also, naturally, resulted in dire poverty."
3. Fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless.
4. Warning of a future disaster or serious consequences.
dire straits
1. A situation of emergency or desperate need.
2. To be in a very difficult or dangerous situation: "The earthquake and the spread of cholera has left Haiti in dire straits for a long time."
dire, dyer
dire (DIGHR)
1. Having or warning of terrible consequences; disastrous: "Even the smallest mistake could have dire consequences."
2. Requiring urgent and immediate action or treatment: "The government is in dire need of reform."
dyer (DIGH'r)
A person who uses a soluble substance for staining or coloring materials by soaking in a coloring solution: "She spent the afternoon as a dyer of certain pieces of clothing and then the hair of her mother."

My cousin, who was a dyer in a fashionable hair salon, knew she was in dire trouble when the owner called her into the office.

direful
1. Causing fear, dread, or terror.
2. Dreadful; awful; terrible.
2. Indicating trouble: "The economist indicated direful forecasts for future investments."
direfully
1. In a direful manner.
2. Dreadfully; terribly; woefully: "Seeing himself trapped in the snow, he cried out direfully on his cell phone."
direfulness
Causing fear or dread or terror: "The direfulness of the warning that a severe storm was approaching our area was enough to cause some people to hide in terror."
direly
1. Dreadfully; terribly: "She could only think direly of what the storm did to her house."
2. An indication of trouble, disaster, misfortune, etc.: "The predictions were direly presented by the financial adviser."
3. Urgently; desperately: "They were direly in need of food."
direness
1. Terribleness; horror; dismalness.
2. Desperately urgent.
direr
1. Warning of or having more dreadful or terrible consequences.
2. More calamitous: "The situation became direr when she saw him slip under the ice."
direst
1. Causing or involving the greatest fear or suffering; most dreadful; exceedingly terrible: "The terrorists threaten the people with the direst punishments of beatings and death for cooperating with the government."
2. The worst indications of trouble, disasters, or misfortunes: "The preacher spoke of the direst consequences of an immoral life."