deplorable
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: government
politics
Etymology: 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”.
Inflected forms:
form: more deplorable
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most deplorable
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: deplorables
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To be deplored.
pos: adj
examples: We were all saddened by the deplorable death of his son.
[T]he storie of / Your most deplorable fortune at the first warmde mee / With more then modest heates, but since I saw you / I am all fire, and shall turne cyndars, yf / You showe not mercie to mee.
[T]heſe ſeaſons are defined by the motions of the Sun; […] vvhereas remaining in one place theſe diſtinctions had ceaſed, and conſequently the generation of all things depending on their viciſſitudes; making in one hemiſphere a perpetuall Summer, in the other a deplorable and comfortleſſe VVinter, […]
O hard-hearted, and deplorable Tovvn of Manſoul, hovv long vvilt thou love thy ſinful, ſinful ſimplicity, and ye fools delight in their ſcorning?
[T]ho' my Caſe vvas deplorable enough, yet I had great Cauſe for Thankfulneſs, and that I vvas not driven to any Extremities for Food; but rather Plenty, even to Dainties.
But the people beheld the deplorable ſituation of their Sovereign vvith inſenſibility; and ſo ſtrong vvas their perſuaſion of her guilt, and ſo great the violence of their indignation, that the ſufferings of their Queen did not, in any degree, mitigate their reſentment, or procure her that ſympathy, vvhich is ſeldom denied to unfortunate Princes.
The condition of the Creeks and Cherokees, to which I have already alluded, sufficiently corroborates the truth of this deplorable picture.
If, however, the early symptoms of insanity be neglected till the brain becomes accustomed to the irregular actions of disease, or till organic changes take place from the early violence of those actions, then the case becomes hopeless of cure. In this situation, in too many cases, the victim of this deplorable malady is cast off by his friends, thrust into a dungeon or in chains, there to remain till the shattered intellect shall exhaust all its remaining energies in perpetual raving and violence, till it sinks into hopeless and deplorable idiocy.
Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability; [...] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
gloss: To be deplored.
pos: adj
examples: Poor children suffer permanent damage due to deplorable living conditions and deplorable treatment by law enforcement.
Poor children are often accused of having deplorable manners, when they are, in fact, simply responding to society in ways that mirror how society treats them.
There are some abuses among us of great consequence, the reformation of which is properly your province; though, as far as I have been conversant in your papers, you have not yet considered them. These are, the deplorable ignorance that for some years hath reigned among our English writers, the great depravity of our taste, and the continual corruption of our style.
I assert that the attacks directed against the Bank of the United States, originate in the same propensities which militate against the Federal Government; and that the very numerous opponents of the former afford a deplorable symptom of the decreasing support of the latter.
The repeated tactic of deus ex machina (without a deus) has a deplorable effect on both the plot and the dialogue.
gloss: A person or thing that is to be deplored.
pos: noun
examples: [W]hat better is an old fellow, mauled with rheumatism and other deplorables.
[H]eralding, this season, an end of the most awful of all apparel abominations, that most despicable of all deplorables, the ankle sock.
gloss: A supporter of Donald Trump.
pos: noun
tags: US
derogatory
neologism
specifically
examples: He [Donald Trump] did not say who “the guys” were—but [John Maguire] Dowd knew he meant the Trump base, the crowds at his rallies, the Fox News watchers, the deplorables.
Trump's fate, [Steve] Bannon declared, rested with the deplorables, who had to be brought to the kind of fearful emotional pitch that would get them to the polls.
The self-image of the deplorables is that of the honest, hardworkin' people of the Christian American heartland and South who have been screwed by Washington, D.C., and the coastal elites since the dawn of time.
Related words: deplorate
deploration
deplorative
deplore
deplored
deplorement
Derived words: deplorability
deplorableness
deplorably
DePlorean
Depplorable
Translations: