miser
See also: Miser and misër
English
Etymology
From Late Latin miser (“wretched, unfortunate, unhappy, miserable, sick, ill, bad, worthless, etc.”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmaɪzə(ɹ)/
Audio (southern England) (file) - :Rhymes: -aɪzə(ɹ)
Noun
miser (plural misers)
- (derogatory) A person who hoards money rather than spending it; one who is cheap or extremely parsimonious.
- Synonym: see Thesaurus:miser
- Ebenezer Scrooge was a stereotypical miser: he spent nothing he could save, neither giving to charity nor enjoying his wealth.
- Mr. Krabs, Plankton, Dr. Eggman, Mr. Burns, Bugsy Siegel, Benny Goodman, Katharine Hepburn, and Howard Hughes were all famous examples of misers.
- A kind of earth auger, typically large-bored and often hand-operated.
Antonyms
- spendthrift
Derived terms
- miserly
Related terms
- miserable
- misery
Translations
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.
Translations to be checked
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See also
- misère
Further reading
- miser in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- miser in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
- miser at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams
- IMers, Mires, Reims, Rimes, emirs, mires, reims, reism, remis, riems, rimes
French
Etymology
mise + -er
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mi.ze/
Audio (file)
Verb
miser
- (gambling) to bet (place a bet)
Conjugation
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
- miser sur le mauvais cheval
Descendants
- → Romanian: miza
Further reading
- “miser”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
- émirs, mires, mirés, Reims, remis, rimes, rîmes
Latin
Etymology
From Proto-Italic *misseros, of unknown origin. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *mēwdʰ- (“to complain, be emotional about”), the same root of Latin maereō and Ancient Greek μῖσος (mîsos, “hatred”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈmi.ser/, [ˈmɪs̠ɛr]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈmi.ser/, [ˈmiːs̬er]
Audio (Roman) (file)
Adjective
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
- Synonyms: maestus, trīstis, infēlīx, aeger
- Antonyms: laetus, alacer, fēlīx
- worthless, null
- Synonyms: vīlis, inānis
- tragic, unfortunate
- sick
- Synonyms: aeger, languidus, fessus
- Antonyms: sānus, salvus, validus, integer, intāctus, salūber
- tormenting
Declension
First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).
Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Nominative | miser | misera | miserum | miserī | miserae | misera | |
Genitive | miserī | miserae | miserī | miserōrum | miserārum | miserōrum | |
Dative | miserō | miserō | miserīs | ||||
Accusative | miserum | miseram | miserum | miserōs | miserās | misera | |
Ablative | miserō | miserā | miserō | miserīs | |||
Vocative | miser | misera | miserum | miserī | miserae | misera |
Derived terms
- misellus
- misereō
- miseria
- misericors
- miserulus
- miseror
Related terms
- miserābilis
- miserandus
- miserātiō
- miserātor / misertor
- misericordia
Descendants
- Eastern Romance:
- Romanian: meser, measer
- Italian: misero
- Old French: mezre
- → Catalan: míser
- → Portuguese: mísero
- → Spanish: mísero
- → Albanian: mjerë[1] (disputed)
- → English: miser
- → Romanian: mizer
References
- “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, 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]
- Orel, Vladimir (1998), “mjerë”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Cologne: Brill, →ISBN, page 270