SuaviloquyToday’s word

piteous

Piteous, a.

Etymology: [OE. pitous, OF. pitos, F. piteux. See Pity.]

1. Pious; devout. [Obs.] The Lord can deliver piteous men from temptation. Wyclif.

2. Evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy; compassionate; tender. "[She] piteous of his case." Pope. She was so charitable and so pitous. Chaucer.

3. Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable; lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case. Spenser. The most piteous tale of Lear. Shak.

4. Paltry; mean; pitiful. "Piteous amends." Milton.

1 more senses

Syn. -- Sorrowful; mournful; affecting; doleful; woeful; rueful; sad; wretched; miserable; pitiable; pitiful; compassionate. -- Pit"e*ous*ly, adv. -- Pit"e*ous*ness, n.

Shades of meaning

Fernald has no entry of its own for piteous; he lists it under pitiful.

Where he writes about it:

Piteous is now rarely used in its earlier sense of feeling pity, but in its derived sense applies to what really excites the emotion; as, a piteous cry. — from pitiful

Synonyms

pitifulabjectbasecontemptibledespicablelamentablemiserablemournfulmovingpaltrypatheticpitiablesorrowfultouchingwofulwretched

Antonyms

augustbeneficentcommandingdignifiedexaltedgloriousgrandgreathelpfulloftymightynoblesublimesuperbsuperior

etymologyWebster’s online