The state of feeling sad, unsatisfied, or not content with your life or situation.
From 'un-' (meaning 'not') plus 'happiness,' which comes from Old Norse 'happ' meaning 'luck' or 'fortune.' The word evolved as 'happiness' became about luck, then about good fortune in general, and finally about emotional wellbeing.
Happiness originally meant 'good luck'—so unhappiness is literally 'bad luck!' This reveals that medieval people saw contentment as something that happened to you rather than something you created, which is pretty different from how we think about happiness today.
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