adjective
- suffering from bad luck: an unfortunate person.
- unfavorable or inauspicious: an unfortunate beginning.
- regrettable or deplorable: an unfortunate remark.
- marked by or inviting misfortune: an unfortunate development.
- lamentable; sad: the unfortunate death of her parents.
noun
- an unfortunate person.
adverb
- (sentence modifier) it is regrettable that; unluckily
adjective
- causing or attended by misfortune
- unlucky, unsuccessful, or unhappyan unfortunate character
- regrettable or unsuitablean unfortunate speech
noun
- an unlucky person
adv.1540s, from unfortunate + -ly (2). Originally “not successfully, to a regrettable extent.” The proper meaning is now rare; the main modern sense of “sad to say,” in parenthetical use, recorded from 1770s. adj.1520s, “unlucky,” from un- (1) “not” + fortunate. Infortunate in same sense is from late 14c. (along with a verb infortune “to render unhappy,” and a noun meaning “bad luck). In late 18c.-early 19c., unfortunate woman was a polite way to say “prostitute.” The noun meaning “one who is not fortunate” is recorded from 1630s.