Deserving of pity or compassion because someone is suffering or in a bad situation; also means pathetically small or weak.
From Old English 'pite' (pity) combined with '-ful' suffix meaning 'full of.' The word has carried meanings of both deserving sympathy and being inadequate for centuries.
Medieval literature used 'pitiful' to describe tragic heroes, but by Shakespeare's time it was also being used sarcastically to mean 'inadequate'—so the word actually shifted meanings as cynicism entered the language!
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