Lamentable means so poor or sad that it is to be regretted. A lamentable failure, in a lamentable state, lamentably ignorant.
It is formal and rather grand, which is why it works as a put-down: calling a performance lamentable is worse than calling it bad. The Latin behind it means to be wept over.
1adjectivelamentableSo poor or sad that it is to be regretted.
“The state of the hospital was lamentable, with broken beds and dirty floors.”
lamentable is a quality.
Latin lamentabilis comes from lamentari, to lament or wail.
Latin
lāmentābilis — full of sorrow, mournful; deplorable
Middle French
lamentable
Middle English
lamentable
English, today
lamentable
Built from
From Middle English lamentable, from Middle French lamentable, from Latin lāmentābilis (“full of sorrow, mournful; deplorable”), from lāmentor (“lament”), from lāmenta (“wailing, weeping”). by surface analysis, lament + -able.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA