piteous
English
Etymology
From Middle English pitous, from Old French piteus, pitus.
Pronunciation
Audio (US) (file)
Adjective
piteous (comparative more piteous, superlative most piteous)
- Provoking pity, compassion, or sympathy.
- Synonyms: heartbreaking, heartrending, lamentable, pathetic, pitiful
- c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii]:
- […] with his strong arms
He fastened on my neck, and bellowed out
As he’d burst heaven; threw him on my father;
Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him
That ever ear receiv’d;
- 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, London: T. Payne & Son and T. Cadell, Volume 2, Book 3, Chapter 4, p. 51,
- […] my strength, madam, is almost all gone away, and when I do any hard work, it’s quite a piteous sight to see me, for I am all in a tremble after it, just as if I had an ague […]
- 1855, Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, New York: Miller, Orton and Mulligan:
- In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead, heavy footsteps and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door.
- 1931, Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth, New York: Modern Library, 1944, Chapter 11, pp. 80-81,
- “ […] you go out to beg, first smearing yourself with mud and filth to make yourselves as piteous as you can.”
- (obsolete) Showing devotion to God.
- Synonyms: devout, pious
- c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, editors, The Holy Bible, […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, III, or IV), Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, OCLC 459166891, II. Peter 2:9:
- For the Lord kan delyuere piteuouse men fro temptacioun, and kepe wickid men in to the dai of dom to be turmentid;
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- (obsolete) Showing compassion.
- Synonyms: compassionate, tender
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene 3]:
- Thine eye begins to speak; set thy tongue there;
Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear;
That hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce,
Pity may move thee ‘pardon’ to rehearse.
- 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837, page 29:
- The water Nymphs that in the bottome playd
Held up their pearled wrists and tooke her in,
Bearing her straite to aged Nereus hall
Who piteous of her woes rea[r’]d her lanke head,
And gave her to his daughters to imbathe
In nectar’d lavers strewd with asphodil,
- 1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Second”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, OCLC 1033416756, page 21:
- With that the Goddess (piteous of his case,
Yet smiling at his ruful length of face)
Gives him a cov’ring,
- 1783, William Blake, “An Imitation of Spenser” in Poetical Sketches, London: Basil Montagu Pickering, 1868, p. 37,
- Or have they soft piteous eyes beheld
- The weary wanderer thro’ the desert rove?
- Or does th’ afflicted man thy heavenly bosom move?
- (obsolete) Of little importance or value.
- Synonyms: miserable, paltry, pathetic, mean, pitiful
- 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 1030-1034:
- […] calling to minde with heed
Part of our Sentence, that thy Seed shall bruise
The Serpents head; piteous amends, unless
Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand Foe
Satan,
- 1719 April 25, [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, OCLC 838630407, pages 158-159:
- […] my Business was now to try if I could not make Jackets out of the great Watch-Coats which I had by me, and with such other Materials as I had, so I set to Work a Taylering, or rather indeed a Botching, for I made most piteous Work of it.
Related terms
- dispiteous
- impiteous
- piteously
- pitiable
- pitiful
- pitisome
Translations
pitiful
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Anagrams
- poustie