wretch means an unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person. It carries an Arena rating of 1779, earned across 41 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, wretch ranks #1,632 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,971 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,671 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,831 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
wretch is pronounced /ɹɛt͡ʃ/.
Why “wretch” is a great word
WRETCH — [Noun] An unfortunate, miserable, or contemptible person. From Middle English *wrecche*, from Old English *wreċċa* (“exile, outcast”), from Proto-Germanic *wrakjô* (“exile, fugitive”), from Proto-Indo-European *wreg-* (“to track, follow”). Unlike a *scoundrel*, which implies active villainy, or a *victim*, which implies passive suffering, a wretch is defined by a pitiable state, often of their own making, that fuses misery with meanness. It is the shivering figure in the doorway whose plea is undercut by a sneer, the self-loathing tyrant in his gilded hall, and the hollow-eyed reflection after a lifetime of poor choices. The word charts a soul’s outermost exile, where disgrace and despair become a single, barren landscape.
Etymology
From Middle English wrecche, from Old English wreċċa (“exile, outcast”), from Proto-Germanic *wrakjô (“exile, fugitive, warrior”), from Proto-Indo-European *wreg- (“to track, follow”). Doublet of garçon.
noun
- An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person.e.g.“The poor wretch, who lay motionless a long time, just began to recover his senses as a stage-coach came by.” — 1742, Henry Fielding, chapter 12, in Joseph Andrews, archived from the original on 05 Apr 2012:
- An unpleasant, annoying, worthless, or despicable person.e.g.“Swear to me but, thou bold wretch! said she, swear to me, that Pamela Andrews is really and truly thy lawful wife, without sham, without deceit, without double-meaning; and I know what I have to say!” — 1740, Samuel Richardson, chapter 71, in Pamela:
- An exile.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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