accursed
adjUK /əˈkɜː.sɪd/ · US /əˈkɝ.sɪd/
Etymology From Middle English acursed, from acursen (“to curse”), from Old English ācursian, from ā- + cursian, from curs (“curse”). First attested in the 13th century.
1
Hateful; detestable, loathsome.
- Accursed race of Tiriel. behold your father // Come forth & look on her that bore you. come you accursed sons.c. 1789, William Blake, Tiriel:
- Lo! they are charged with studying the accursed cabalistical secrets of the Jews, and the magic of the Paynim Saracens.1819, Ivanhoe, Walter Scott, Chapter 35:
1 more example
- […]Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know that I beheld Death with mine own eyes at the hand of this damned wretch, whom thou didst certify to be my uncle;[…]1885, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 532:
- Accurſt be he that firſt inuented warc. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iv:
- […]—if any one, be he who he may, attempt to alter the faith once for all delivered, let him be accursed.1885, Charles Abel Heurtley, transl., The Commonitory of Vincent of Lérins, Chapter 8:
2 more examples
- For at the very moment I become accursed, at that same highest moment, I become exactly like a heathen […]1912, Fyodor Dostoevsky, chapter 7, in Constance Garnett, transl., The Brothers Karamazov, Book III, translation of original in Russian:
- We did not come here to waste words in treating with Sauron, faithless and accursed; still less with one of his slaves. Begone!1955, J.R.R. Tolkien, chapter 10, in The Return of the King, Book V:
- Derived terms
- accursedly, accursedness, nonaccursed, unaccursed