miser-

1. To feel compassion for; to express sorrow, sadness, or pity for anyone who has experienced something unpleasant; to lament or to express grief about: Janine commiserated with Vance regarding the terrible injuries that he had suffered in the car accident.

Friends called Devon to commiserate with him when they heard that he had to have a triple by-pass operation.

2. Etymology: from Latin com, "with" + miseror, "pity". © ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

1. A feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes, or miseries, of other people.
2. An expression of sympathy with another person's grief.

Translation: Indeed, wretched is the man whose fame makes his misfortunes famous.

1. A person who is a stingy hoarder of money and possessions and who doesn’t share or spend any of it with anyone else: Although David Williams was wealthy, he was a miser who lived a miserable life alone and without any friends.
2. Etymology: from "miserable person, wretch," from Latin miser, "unhappy, wretched, pitiable, in distress"; of unknown origin.

The original sense is now obsolete, the main modern meaning of "money-hoarding person" comes from an assumed unhappiness of such a person.

This word is not derived from the Greek miso- (hate) element even though there is a similarity in form, and also that a miser is usually hated or despised.

1. Characterizing a deplorable state of distress or misfortune: In class, the students learned more about the refugees and the miserable and dreadful circumstances they had to live in.
2. Contemptibly small in amount: Jack brought home only one carrot and some old lettuce, a really miserable supply of vegetables, because everything had already been sold out at the market.
3. Deserving or inciting pity: Jane commented, "We have too many miserable victims in the Iraq war."
4. Of very poor quality or condition: After reading the novel, Jim thought that it was the most miserable one he had ever read!
5. Causing or accompanied by discomfort, unpleasantness, or unhappiness; Jack never wanted to talk about the miserable time he had during childhood.
6. Inadequate, often insulting or embarrassing, in quantity or quality: The neighbors often commented on Sam's miserable neglect of his children since his wife died.

1. A condition consisting of physical misery: "We have suffered the miserableness of a freezing spring."
2. A situation in which a person is very unhappy or depressed because of a misfortune or an affliction.

1. Descriptive of how a very poor or sad situation is presented: Nigel's cat limped miserably after returning in the morning after spending the night out.
2. Characterizing how a bad or physical condition exists: She groaned miserably and trembled with anger because she was too poor to buy the medication she needed.
3. A reference to how someone has a very poor character or quality: He failed miserably as a father.

1. Compassion; pity; mercy.
2. Etymology: from Old French, from Latin misericordia, "compassion"; from miser?re, "to pity" + cor, "heart".

A thin-bladed dagger; so called because in the Middle Ages, it was used to give the death stroke, or "mercy" stroke, to a fallen adversary.

Translation: Compassion takes care of sufferings, it does not ask for their cause.

Motto of German Emperor Rupprecht of Palatinate (1400-1410).

An amount that is extremely small.

1. A reference to a person or behavior which is characterized by or indicative of a lack of generosity.
2. A description of someone who is greedy for money and unwilling to share it or to spend it.
3. A reference to something which is contemptibly insufficient or inadequate.
4. Relating to or characteristic of an avaricious or penurious person.

Any disease associated with deprivation and neglect.

Translation: "No stranger to misfortune myself, I learn to relieve the sufferings of others."

One rationale for helping people in distress, from Virgil's Aeneid. With these words, Dido, Queen of Carthage, greeted Aeneas and his companions, who were in exile.