# unhappy
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English unhappy; equivalent to un- +‎ happy.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ʌnˈhæpi/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -æpi
* Hyphenation: un‧hap‧py

### Adjective

unhappy (comparative unhappier or more unhappy, superlative unhappiest or most unhappy)
* Not happy; sad.
    Synonyms: sad, lamentable; see also Thesaurus:sad
    Antonyms: delighted, exuberant, glad, happy, joyous, joyful
    I am unhappy.
** 1728, John Gay, The Beggar's Opera:A moment of time may make us unhappy forever.
* Not satisfied; unsatisfied.
    Synonyms: dissatisfied, uncontented
    An unhappy customer is unlikely to return to your shop.
* (chiefly dated) Not lucky; unlucky.
    Synonyms: hapless, unpropitious; see also Thesaurus:unlucky
    The doomed lovers must have been born under an unhappy star.
** 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 56:The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword, and from the wound his life's blood was spouting in a stream, and falling with a hiss into the road.
* (chiefly dated) Not suitable; unsuitable.
    Synonyms: unfit, inappropriate; see also Thesaurus:unsuitable
** 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC:The people, if they are not strangely bent Against our welfare, never will consent To this unhappy match, foreboding ill: What's it to us, if th' adverse nation will?

#### Derived terms

* unhappy number
* unhappy triad

#### Translations
### Noun

unhappy (plural unhappies)
* A person who is not happy.
    Synonyms: sadcase, sad panda, sad sack
** 1972, The New Yorker (volume 48, part 1, page 109)
    Leduc, as is true of many other unhappies, is largely a confessional writer: her subject is herself, and her gift is a driving, vivacious power that turns her incurable, inveterate unhappiness into a series of dramas […]

### Verb

unhappy (third-person singular simple present unhappies, present participle unhappying, simple past and past participle unhappied)
* To make or become unhappy; to sadden.
    Synonyms: deject, depress; see also Thesaurus:be sad, Thesaurus:sadden
** 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act 3, scene 1]:A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments, By you unhappied and disfigured clean
** 1625, Sir John Eliot, Letter to the duke of Buckingham:In the greate desire I have unto your grace's service, nothing has more unhappied me than the wante of opportunitie in which I might expresse the character of my harte that onlie takes of your impressions.
** 1637, Samuel Page, The Broken Heart, page 29:They unhappied their estates by sinning against God, and of glorious Angels became unclean devils: there is not part of the work of Gods hands so eternally cast away, reserved in chains of darknesse for the judgement of the last day.
** 1788, Alexander Falconbridge, The African Slave Trade:Nor do these unhappying beings, after they become the property of Europeans (from whom as a more civilized people, more humanity might naturally be expected), find their situation in the least amended.
** 2011, Jeanne Comings Majdalany, “In Foreign Lands — A Teacher and A Learner”, in Anne Peet Carrington and Børre Ludvigsen, editor, Fill the bathtub!, page 65:Most unhappying! I had to get up, have a nice hot bath and then go out into the cold rain to Ted's for breakfast.

## Middle English
### Noun

unhappy
* unhap
** 1470–1483 (date produced), Thom̃s Malleorre [i.e., Thomas Malory], “[Launcelot and Guinevere]”, in Le Morte Darthur (British Library Additional Manuscript 59678), [England: s.n.], folio 449, recto, lines 27–29:So thys ſeaſon hit be felle in the moneth : of may a grete angur and vnhappy that ſtynted nat tylle þͤ floure of chyvalry of the worlde was deſtroyed and ſlayneSo in this season, as in the month of May, it befell a great anger and unhap that stinted not till the flower of chivalry of all the world was destroyed and slain;