unpropitious en · ADJ
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English propitious English unpropitious From un- + propitious.
Meanings
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Not propitious; unfavourable, untimely.
[I]t was there that he had hoped to have found peace and rest from the past turmoils of life, in that enchanting spot, in which he might have desired to have ended his days, had not Fate, ever unpropitious to him, chased him from it.
1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter VII, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 82:'Tvvas vvhen the Dog-ſtar's unpropitious ray / Smote ev'ry brain, and vvither'd ev'ry Bay; / Sick vvas the Sun, the Ovvl forſook his bovv'r, / The moon-ſtruck Prophet felt the madding hour: […]
1742, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Fourth”, in The New Dunciad: As is^([sic]) It was Found in the Year 1741. […], Dublin: […] George Faulkner, →OCLC, page 10, lines 9–12:Without eggs, cocoa-nuts, or plantains, we had very short commons, and the boisterous weather being unpropitious for fishing, we had to live on what few eatable birds we could shoot, with an occasional cuscus, or eastern opossum, the only quadruped, except pigs, inhabiting the island.
1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 357:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most unpropitious | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more unpropitious | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |