deplorable

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pleh₃(w)-“to flow; to swim”
2. Latin · derived fromdēplōrō“to bemoan, complain about; to bewail, lament, deplore”
3. Late Latin · borrowed fromdēplōrābilis
4. French · borrowed fromdéplorable“lamentable, regrettable”
5. English todaydeplorable

The adjective is borrowed from French déplorable (“lamentable, regrettable”), or from its etymon Late Latin dēplōrābilis + English -able (suffix meaning ‘relevant to, suitable to’). Dēplōrābilis is derived from Latin dēplōrō (“to bemoan, complain about; to bewail, lament, deplore”) + -ābilis (suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’); while dēplōrō is from dē- (intensifying prefix) + plōrō (“to cry out; to complain; to lament, deplore”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₃(w)- (“to flow; to swim”)). By surface analysis, deplore + -able. The noun is derived from the adjective. Noun sense 2 refers to a campaign speech by the American politician and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (born 1947) during the 2016 United States presidential election calling half of the supporters of her Republican opponent Donald Trump (born 1946) a “basket of deplorables”.

Words from the same roots