δυστυχία

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From δῠσ- (dus-, “bad”) +‎ τῠ́χη (túkhē, “fortune, fate”) +‎ -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā, “feminine abstract substantive”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /dys.ty.kʰí.aː/ → /ðys.tyˈçi.a/ → /ðis.tiˈçi.a/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /dys.ty.kʰí.aː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /dys.tyˈkʰi.a/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ðys.tyˈçi.a/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ðys.tyˈçi.a/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ðis.tiˈçi.a/

Noun

δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱ • (dustukhíā) f (genitive δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱς); first declension

1. misfortune; ill luck
   • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 7.LXXXVI:

     Καὶ ὁ μὲν τοιαύτῃ ἢ ὅτι ἐγγύτατα τούτων αἰτίᾳ ἐτεθνήκει, ἥκιστα δὴ ἄξιος ὢν τῶν γε ἐπ’ ἐμοῦ Ἑλλήνων ἐς τοῦτο δυστυχίας ἀφικέσθαι διὰ τὴν πᾶσαν ἐς ἀρετὴν νενομισμένην ἐπιτήδευσιν.

     Kaì ho mèn toiaútēi ḕ hóti engútata toútōn aitíāi etethnḗkei, hḗkista dḕ áxios ṑn tôn ge ep’ emoû Hellḗnōn es toûto dustukhías aphikésthai dià tḕn pâsan es aretḕn nenomisménēn epitḗdeusin.

     • 1874 translation by Richard Crawley

       This or the like was the cause of the death of a man who, of all the Hellenes in my time, least deserved such a fate, seeing that the whole course of his life had been regulated with strict attention to virtue.

Inflection

First declension of ἡ δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱ; τῆς δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱ hē dustukhíā	τὼ δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱ tṑ dustukhíā	αἱ δῠστῠχῐ́αι hai dustukhíai
Genitive	τῆς δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱς tês dustukhíās	τοῖν δῠστῠχῐ́αιν toîn dustukhíain	τῶν δῠστῠχῐῶν tôn dustukhiôn
Dative	τῇ δῠστῠχῐ́ᾳ têi dustukhíāi	τοῖν δῠστῠχῐ́αιν toîn dustukhíain	ταῖς δῠστῠχῐ́αις taîs dustukhíais
Accusative	τὴν δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱν tḕn dustukhíān	τὼ δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱ tṑ dustukhíā	τᾱ̀ς δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱς tā̀s dustukhíās
Vocative	δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱ dustukhíā	δῠστῠχῐ́ᾱ dustukhíā	δῠστῠχῐ́αι dustukhíai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

References

• “δυστυχία”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “δυστυχία”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• δυστυχία in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• δυστυχία in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • adversity idem, page 15.
  • affliction idem, page 17.
  • calamity idem, page 108.
  • catastrophe idem, page 118.
  • disaster idem, page 228.
  • failure idem, page 301.
  • haplessness idem, page 384.
  • lucklessness idem, page 504.
  • mischance idem, page 533.
  • misfortune idem, page 534.
  • unluckiness idem, page 924.
• “δυστυχία”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

Greek

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek δυστυχία f (dustukhía, “misfortune”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ðistiˈçia]
• Hyphenation: δυ‧στυ‧χί‧α

Noun

δυστυχία • (dystychía) f (plural δυστυχίες)

1. misfortune; an undesirable event
2. (uncountable) unhappiness

Declension

Declension of δυστυχία

	singular	plural
nominative	δυστυχία (dystychía)	δυστυχίες (dystychíes)
genitive	δυστυχίας (dystychías)	δυστυχιών (dystychión)
accusative	δυστυχία (dystychía)	δυστυχίες (dystychíes)
vocative	δυστυχία (dystychía)	δυστυχίες (dystychíes)

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “unhappiness”): ευτυχία f (eftychía, “happiness”)

Related terms

• δυστύχημα f (dystýchima)
• δυστυχής f (dystychís)
• δυστυχισμένος f (dystychisménos)
• δύστυχος f (dýstychos)
• δυστυχώ f (dystychó)
• δυστυχώς f (dystychós)

Further reading

• δυστυχία, in Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής [Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek], Triantafyllidis Foundation, 1998 at the Centre for the Greek language