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dismality

 - 2 dictionary results

dis⋅mal

  [diz-muhl]
Use dismality in a Sentence
–adjective
1. causing gloom or dejection; gloomy; dreary; cheerless; melancholy: dismal weather.
2. characterized by ineptness or lack of skill, competence, effectiveness, imagination, or interest; pitiful: Our team played a dismal game.
3. Obsolete.
a. disastrous; calamitous.
b. unlucky; sinister.
–noun
4. Southern U.S. a tract of swampy land, usually along the coast.
Origin:
1275–1325; ME dismale unlucky time, dismol day one of two days in each month considered unlucky (hence later taken as adj.) < AF dis mal < ML diēs malī lit., evil days

Related forms:
dis⋅mal⋅ly, adverb
dis⋅mal⋅ness, dis⋅mal⋅i⋅ty, noun

Synonyms:
2. hopeless, abysmal, dreadful.

Antonyms:
1. cheerful; gay.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

dismal 
c.1400, from Anglo-Fr. dismal, from O.Fr. (li) dis mals "(the) bad days," from M.L. dies mali "evil or unlucky days" (also called dies Ægyptiaci), from L. dies "days" (see diurnal) + mali, pl. of malus "bad" (see mal-). Through the Middle Ages, calendars marked two days of each month as unlucky, supposedly based on the ancient calculations of Egyptian astrologers. Modern sense of "gloomy, dreary" first recorded in Eng. 1593 in reference to sounds.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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