miser

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪzə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Audio (US)

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•  :Rhymes: -aɪzə(ɹ)

miser (plural misers)

1. (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.

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

• spendthrift

• miserly

• miserable
• misery

• misère

• “miser”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “miser”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “miser”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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

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 Proto-Indo-European *mēwdʰ- (“to complain, be emotional about”), the same root of Latin maereō[1] and Ancient Greek μῖσος (mîsos, “hatred”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ser/, [ˈmɪs̠ɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ser/, [ˈmiːs̬er]

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

3. worthless, null

   Synonyms: vīlis, inānis

4. tragic, unfortunate
5. sick

   Synonyms: aeger, languidus, fessus

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

6. tormenting

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

• Eastern Romance:
  • Romanian: meser, measer
• Italian: misero
• Old French: mezre
• → Catalan: míser
• → Portuguese: mísero
• → Spanish: mísero
• → Albanian: mjerë[2] (disputed)
• → English: miser
• → Romanian: mizer

• “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
    
• H. H. Mallinckrodt, Latijn Nederlands woordenboek (Aula n° 24), Utrecht-Antwerpen, Spectrum, 1959 [Latin - Dutch dictionary in Dutch]