adversity (n.)

c. 1200, aduersite "condition of misfortune, hardship, difficulty, distress," from Old French adversite, aversite "adversity, calamity, misfortune; hostility, wickedness, malice" (Modern French adversité), from Latin adversitatem (nominative adversitas) "opposition," from adversus "turned against, hostile" (see adverse).

also from c. 1200

Entries linking to adversity

adverse (adj.)

late 14c., "contrary, opposing," from Old French advers, earlier avers (13c., Modern French adverse) "antagonistic, unfriendly, contrary, foreign" (as in gent avers "infidel race"), from Latin adversus "turned against, turned toward, fronting, facing," figuratively "hostile, adverse, unfavorable," past participle of advertere "to turn toward," from ad "to" (see ad-) + vertere "to turn, turn back; be turned; convert, transform, translate; be changed" (from PIE root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend"). For distinction of use, see averse. Related: Adversely.

Trends of adversity

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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calamity

early 15c., "damage, state of adversity;" 1550s, "a great misfortune or cause of misery," from Old French calamite (14c.)..., from Latin calamitatem (nominative calamitas) "damage, loss, failure; disaster, misfortune, adversity," a word of obscure...

stress

c. 1300, "hardship, adversity, force, pressure," in part a shortening of Middle English distress (n.); in part from Old French...

stour

c. 1300, stoure, "tumult, armed conflict, struggle with adversity or pain," from Anglo-French estur, Old French estour "a...

probation

especially as a trial period of a candidate for membership) is from early 15c., originally especially a testing or trial by adversity...

The black ox "misfortune, adversity, old age," etc., is by 1540s....

misfortune

From c. 1500 as "adversity or ill fortune for which the sufferer is not directly responsible."...

survivor

Meaning "one who has a knack for pulling through adversity" is attested from 1971....

catastrophe

1530s, "reversal of what is expected" (especially a fatal turning point in a drama, the winding up of the plot), from Latin catastropha, from Greek katastrophē "an overturning; a sudden end," from katastrephein "to overturn, turn down, trample on; to come to an end," from kata "d

nadir

late 14c., in astronomy, "imaginary point of the celestial sphere vertically opposite to the zenith of the sun; the inferior pole of the horizon," from Medieval Latin nadir, from Arabic nazir "opposite to," in nazir as-samt, literally "opposite direction," from nazir "opposite" +

drain

Middle English dreinen, from Old English dreahnian "to draw off gradually, as a liquid; remove by degrees; strain out," from Proto-Germanic *dreug-, source of drought, dry, giving the English word originally a sense of "to make dry." Figurative meaning of "exhaust" is attested fr

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updated on September 16, 2022

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Dictionary entries near adversity

adverb

adverbial

adversarial

adversary

adverse

adversity

advert

advertence

advertique

advertise

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