[UN-1 12.]
1. Misfortune, mishap, ill luck.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VII. vii. 221. Vnhappely he hath donne this day thorou myshappe;… and other dedes he dyde beforne ryght merueyllous and thorou vnhappynes.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XVI. (Percy Soc.), 70. Now have I tolde you all the veray trouthe Of my wofull chaunce and great unhappynesse.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., II. iii. 17 b. Whose feete are swyfte to shedde bloude, in whose wayes ys sorrowe and vnhappynesse.
1621. Wither, Motto, Nec Habeo, C 1 b. I haue not that vnhappinesse, to be A Rich Mans Sonne.
1651. Hobbes, Gov. & Soc., Ep. Ded. Yet the naturall right of Preservation … will not admit it to be a Vice, though it confesse it to be an Unhappinesse.
a. 1701. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus., 17 March 1697. It was our unhappiness to have … a very violent storm of Thunder, and Rain.
1753. Cibber, Lives Poets, I. 18. Lamenting the unhappiness of a fluctuating language, that buries in its ruins even genius itself.
1872. Tennyson, Gareth & Lynette, 1204. I … here lie thrown by whom I know not, all thro’ mere unhappiness—Device and sorcery and unhappiness.
b. Unfavorable character.
1704. Collect. Voy. (Churchill), III. 659/2. The Unhappiness of the Climate.
† 2. Evil, wrong-doing, mischief. Obs.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), II. 627. Thys traytour … That doth this vnhappynes a-gayns all!
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 242 b. Manasses was as the pyt and synke of all fylth & synne and vnhappynesse.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John vii. 57. Readye to be hiered to do all unhappinesse.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 156, margin. Such as would play Bo-peepe and hide themselves when they had done some unhappinesse.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, II. ii. A wild boy, That for the fruits of his unhappiness, Is faign to seek the wars.
3. The condition of being unhappy in mind.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., vi. (1724), 143. No doubt there is to every wrong and vitious act a suitable degree of unhappiness and punishment annext.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, an. 1758. As easy and pleasant a state of existence, as constitutional unhappiness ever permitted him to enjoy.
1842. A. Combe, Physiol. Digestion (ed. 4), 201. Hence … too often arise indifference and unhappiness between those whom Nature has formed … to suit each other.
1861. Mill, Utilit., ii. 10. By unhappiness is intended, pain and the privation of pleasure.
1895. Rosa Baughan, Palmistry, 27. A star on Venus means unhappiness caused by love.
