Etymology

From Middle FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Middle French#PITIABLE [Term?]Category:Middle French term requests#PITIABLE, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#PITIABLE piteable. By surface analysis, pity +‎ -ableCategory:English terms suffixed with -able#PITIABLE.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪti.əbəl/Category:English 4-syllable words#PITIABLECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#PITIABLE

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#PITIABLE

Adjective

pitiable (comparative more pitiable, superlative most pitiable)Category:English lemmas#PITIABLECategory:English adjectives#PITIABLECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#PITIABLECategory:Pages with entries#PITIABLECategory:Pages with 1 entry#PITIABLE

1. That deserves, evokes or can be given pity; pitiful.

   Synonyms: piteous, pitisome, ruthful; see also Thesaurus:pitiful

   • 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “Church”, in Adam Bede […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book second, page 20:

     Mr Poyser had no reason to be ashamed of his leg, and suspected that the growing abuse of top-boots and other fashions tending to disguise the nether limbs, had their origin in a pitiable degeneracy of the human calf.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PITIABLE

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter 6, in A Tale of Two Cities‎:

     The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful. It was not the faintness of physical weakness, though confinement and hard fare no doubt had their part in it. Its deplorable peculiarity was, that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PITIABLE

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 1891, Daniel Ammen, The Old Navy and the New, page 205:

     Fatigued by riding on horseback, bedevilled and begrimed by the ride on manback, he presented a pitiable spectacle, and went on his way to Naples in sad plight.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PITIABLE