Etymology From Middle English dismal, dismale, from Anglo-Norman dismal, from Old French (li) dis mals (“(the) bad days”), from Medieval Latin diēs malī (“bad days”).
1
Disastrous, calamitous.
2
Disappointingly inadequate.
He received a dismal compensation.
Liverpool's efforts thereafter had an air of desperation as their dismal 2012 league form continued.2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport:
3
Causing despair; gloomy and bleak.
The storm made for a dismal weekend
4
Depressing, dreary, cheerless.
She was lost in dismal thoughts of despair
So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all. It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
Etymology From Middle English dismal, dismale, from Anglo-Norman dismal, from Old French (li) dis mals (“(the) bad days”), from Medieval Latin diēs malī (“bad days”).
1
US, Dated, Possibly A dreary swamp in eastern North Carolina or Virginia in the United States.
Especially North Carolina
.[…] the proprietors of all the great unimproved tracts of Swamp lands will form themselves into Drainage Companies, by which method alone can we ever hope to witness the complete reclamation of the dismals of the seaboard. No reasonable doubt can be entertained that the clearing and draining of the lands will produce their usual effects in ameliorating the climate and that the tidal portions of No. Caro- lina may thus[…]1908, Charles Lee Coon, The Beginnings of Public Education in North Carolina: A Documentary History, 1790-1840, page 949:
The term "Dismal" requires some clarification. At one time, all large swamps in eastern North Carolina were commonly referred to as "dismals," probably because they were so gloomy, dreary, and dark, and there are a lot of swamps or "dismals" in eastern North Carolina.2020 May 1, Hudson, Berman, Our Good Earth: A Natural History of Soil, Algora Publishing, →ISBN, page 167: