Wretched means miserably unhappy, or of very poor quality. A wretched existence, wretched weather, feel wretched.
It is two syllables and the -ed is pronounced, which is unusual and marks it as old. It swings between sympathy and contempt — a wretched creature invites pity and a wretched performance does not. The word comes from wretch, an exile.
1adjectivewretchedMiserably unhappy, or of very poor quality.
“I felt wretched all week with a heavy cold and couldn't sleep.”
wretched is a quality of misery.
From wretch, from Old English wrecca, an exile or outcast. The German Recke, a warrior, is the same word gone the other way.
Proto-Indo-European
*wreg-
Old English
wrecc
Middle English
wrecched — (adjective) characterized by or suffering hardship or misfortune, miserable, unfortunate, unhappy; indigent, poor; of low economic or social status, lowly; (noun) miserable person
English, today
wretched
Built from
From Middle English wrecched (“(adjective) characterized by or suffering hardship or misfortune, miserable, unfortunate, unhappy; indigent, poor; of low economic or social status, lowly; (noun) miserable person”)vrechid, wreached, wrecchede, wrecchet, wrecchid, wrecchidde, wrecchide, wrecchud, wrecchyd, wrechched, wrechchedee, wrechchid, wrechchyd, wreched, wrechede, wrechid, wrechit, wrechyd, wrechyde, wretched, wretchid, wretchyd, wricched, wricchid, wriched, wrichede, wrichid, wroched, wrochit, wruchud, wrycched, wryched, (Scotland) wrachit, wrechit, wrechyt, wretchit, (Early Middle English) vreched, from wrecche (“characterized by or suffering hardship or misfortune, miserable, unfortunate, unhappy; indigent, poor; of low economic or social status, lowly; base, contemptible, vile; reprehensible, wicked; miserly, stingy; of little importance, paltry, worthless”) (from Late Old English wrecc, from Old English wreċċa (“an exile, outcast”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European wreg- (“to follow, track; to hunt”)) + -ed. The English word is analysable as wretch + ed.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA