English [ edit ]

Etymology [ edit ]

From French funeste, from Latin fūnestus, from fūnus (“funeral; death”).

Pronunciation [ edit ]

Adjective [ edit ]

funest (comparative more funest, superlative most funest)

( now rare ) Causing death or disaster; fatal, catastrophic; deplorable, lamentable. 1663 Sept 17th, John Evelyn in a letter to Dr. Pierce, published 1863 in Diary and correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S. , volume 3, page 142: I do assure you, there is nothing I have a greater scorn and indignation against, than these wretched scoffers; and I look upon our neglect of severely punishing them as an high defect in our politics, and a forerunner of something very funest .

Sept 17th, John Evelyn in a letter to Dr. Pierce, published 1863 in , volume 3, page 142: 1716 Nov 7th, quoted from 1742, probably Alexander Pope, God's Revenge Against Punning , from Miscellanies , 3rd volume, page 226: Scarce had this unhappy Nation recover'd these funest disasters, when the abomination of Play-houses rose up in this land: From hence hath an inundation of Obscenity flow'd from the Court and overspread the Kingdom.

Nov 7th, quoted from 1742, probably Alexander Pope, , from , 3rd volume, page 226: 1854 , Samuel Taylor Coleridge: …excepting only some Popes have be'en remarked by their own histories for funest and direful deaths.

, Samuel Taylor Coleridge: 1922 (first published 1923-09-07), Wallace Stevens, Of the Manner of Addressing Clouds , from collection Harmonium : Funest philosophers and ponderers,

Their evocations are the speech of clouds.

(first published 1923-09-07), Wallace Stevens, , from collection : 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 264: Flora, initially an ivory-pale, dark-haired funest beauty, whom the author transformed just in time into a third bromidic dummy with a dun bun.

Catalan [ edit ]

Adjective [ edit ]

funest (feminine funesta, masculine plural funests or funestos, feminine plural funestes)

Dutch [ edit ]

Etymology [ edit ]

Borrowed from French funeste.

Pronunciation [ edit ]

Adjective [ edit ]

funest (comparative funester, superlative meest funest or funestst)

Inflection [ edit ]