miser

From Middle English misser, from Late Latin miser (“wretched, unfortunate, unhappy, miserable, sick, ill, bad, worthless, etc.”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪzə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪzə(ɹ)

miser (plural misers)

1. (derogatory) A person who hoards money rather than spending it; one who is cheap or extremely parsimonious. [late 16th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:miser

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:spendthrift

   Scrooge was a typical miser: spending nothing he could save, nor enjoying his wealth.

   • 1577, Antonio de Guevara, translated by Edward Hellowes, A Chronicle, Conteyning the Liues of Tenne Emperours of Rome […] , London: Ralph Newbery, page 257:

     […] foꝛ it was many times notoꝛious vnto al mẽ, yͭ he did eate in his houſe no other fleſh by the ſpace of iii. dayes, but on Hare, whiche was ſent him. He was ſuch a miſer to ſpend, ⁊ ſo deſirous to hooꝛd and lay vp money, yͭ had it not béene foꝛ ſome dayes of ſacrifices, oꝛ his bidden gueſts, not a moꝛsel of fleſh was eaten in his houſe: but only fed of his pꝛouiſion from his garden.

2. (obsolete) A person who is wretched or despicable; a wretch.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv], page 206, column 1:

     […] a poore virgin ſir, an il-fauor’d thing ſir, but mine owne, a poore humour of mine ſir, to take that that no man elſe will: rich honeſtie dwels like a miſer ſir, in a poore houſe, as your Pearle in your foule oyſter.

3. A kind of earth auger, typically large-bored and often hand-operated.

• miserly

• miserable
• misery

• misère

• “miser”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “miser”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “miser”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• IMers, rimes, mires, remis, Miers, Rimes, reism, Mires, Reims, Meirs, riems, Simer, emirs, reims

From mise +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): /mi.ze/

• Audio:

  (file)

miser

1. (gambling) to bet (place a bet)

• miser sur le mauvais cheval

• → Romanian: miza

• “miser”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• émirs, mires, mirés, Reims, remis, rimes, rîmes

From Proto-Italic *misseros, of unknown origin. Possibly from a Proto-Indo-European *mh₂isros (“complaining, emotional about”), the same root of Latin maereō, Tocharian B msär (“difficult”),^[1] and Ancient Greek μῖσος (mîsos, “hatred”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmɪ.sɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmiː.s̬er]

miser (feminine misera, neuter miserum, comparative miserior, superlative miserrimus, adverb miserē or miseriter); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)

1. poor, wretched, pitiful
   • ca. 54 BC, Catullus. Catullus 8

     Miser Catulle, dēsinās ineptīre

     Poor Catullus, stop with the nonsense

   • 29 bc. Vergil. Aeneid, Book I

     nōn ignāra malī miserīs succurrere discō

     being not unacquainted with woe, I learn to help the unfortunate

   • 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).)

2. miserable, unhappy

   Synonyms: maestus, trīstis, infēlīx, aeger

   Antonyms: laetus, alacer, fēlīx

   • 166 BCE, Publius Terentius Afer, Andria 616–617:

     PAMPHILUS: Ehodum, bone vir, quid ais? Vidēn mē cōnsiliīs tuīs / miserum impedītum esse?

     PAMPHILUS: Hey there, good fellow, what are you saying? Can’t you see how your advice has got me miserably entangled?
     (“miserum” functions adverbially here; vidēn = vidēsne: vidēs plus the interrogative particle -ne.)

3. worthless, null

   Synonyms: vīlis, inānis

4. tragic, unfortunate
5. sick

   Synonyms: aeger, languidus, fessus, affectus

   Antonyms: sānus, salvus, validus, integer, intāctus, salūber

6. tormenting

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).

• “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^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (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]