Other forms: wretches
A wretch is somebody in a pitiful state, and looking it: hungry, filthy, unlucky. The beggar shivering in a doorway; the prisoner dragged up from the cells with straw in his hair.
The word swings between pity and contempt, and whatever stands in front of it tells you which — 'the poor wretch had nothing' is sympathy, 'you ungrateful wretch' is a scolding. You meet wretch in novels, hymns and fantasy rather than in an office. The adjective wretched is far commoner and has spread wider: wretched weather is miserable weather, a wretched hotel is a bad one, and to feel wretched is to feel awful. The noun for the condition is wretchedness. One trap for the ear: wretch and retch sound alike, but to retch is to heave as if you are about to be sick.
1nounwretchA person in a miserable, pitiable condition.
“The wretch had been sleeping under the bridge all winter.”
synonyms: unfortunate, poor soul
2noundespiseA person you despise, or scold half-affectionately.
“Come here, you little wretch, and give me back my glasses.”
wretch is a person.
Old English wreċċa meant an exile, a person driven out of their home, and behind it stands Proto-Germanic *wrakjô, 'exile, fugitive, warrior', from a root *wreg- meaning to track or follow. The misery came second: to be banished was to be pitied. The same Germanic word crossed into French and turned into garçon, so an English wretch and a Paris waiter are distant cousins.
Proto-Indo-European
*wreg- — to track, follow
Proto-Germanic
*wrakjô — exile, fugitive, warrior
Old English
wreċċa — exile, outcast
Middle English
wrecche
English, today
wretch
From Middle English wrecche, from Old English wreċċa (“exile, outcast”), from Proto-Germanic wrakjô (“exile, fugitive, warrior”), from Proto-Indo-European wreg- (“to track, follow”). a doublet of garçon.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA