Charles Dickens
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The Evil History of Dismal
In late antiquity, certain days each month, called “Egyptian days,” were regarded as inauspicious, probably as a relic of ancient Egyptian belief. By the Middle Ages, people took them to be anniversaries of the Biblical plagues in Egypt. There were 24 such days per year, and in Anglo-French they were called collectively dismal (from Latin dies mali, “evil days”), and this word was borrowed into Middle English. In time the “evil days” sense was forgotten and dismal was simply taken to mean “disastrous.” The noun dismal, meaning “swamp,” goes back to the 1700s when the marshy region in Virginia and North Carolina was named the Great Dismal Swamp.
Synonyms
- black
- bleak
- cheerless
- chill
- Cimmerian
- cloudy
- cold
- comfortless
- dark
- darkening
- depressing
- depressive
- desolate
- dire
- disconsolate
- drear
- dreary
- dreich [chiefly Scottish]
- elegiac
- elegiacal
- forlorn
- funereal
- gloomy
- glum
- godforsaken
- gray
- grey
- lonely
- lonesome
- lugubrious
- miserable
- morbid
- morose
- murky
- plutonian
- saturnine
- sepulchral
- solemn
- somber
- sombre
- sullen
- sunless
- tenebrific
- tenebrous
- wretched
Examples of dismal in a Sentence
Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 11 Apr. 2024
The soil where crawfish burrow to lay eggs dried out leading to a dismal harvest this season.
—Sara Cline, Quartz, 22 Mar. 2024
With little basis of comparison east of the Mississippi, the selection committee likely defaulted to the conference’s dismal record in the NCAA Tournament.
—Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Mar. 2024
But until now stretchable electronics have shown dismal performance.
—IEEE Spectrum, 17 Mar. 2024
Lady Gaga, House of Gucci (2021) Director Ridley Scott’s film about how the Gucci family lost control of their fashion empire is a dismal affair, inert to the point of supinity and poorly acted by the likes of Al Pacino and Jared Leto.
—Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 9 Mar. 2024
There are some good signs for Democrats, multiple analysts say, but whether the campaign can address Charlotte’s dismal voter turnout remains to be seen.
—Mary Ramsey, Charlotte Observer, 10 Apr. 2024
The book is probably best known for a dismal 1970 adaptation starring Raquel Welch and John Huston that remains bolted to lists of the worst-ever movies.
—Matt Brennan, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2024
State had lost seven of nine games to end their regular season a dismal 17-14, a record too mediocre to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
—Becky Sullivan, NPR, 5 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dismal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near dismal
Cite this Entry
“Dismal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dismal. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
Middle English dismal "days marked on a calendar as unlucky," from early French (same meaning), from Latin dies mali, "evil days"
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