2541
Is it true that 寂しい can be used to describe someone as "pathetic" ? (pathetic
in the sense like someone is cheating in a game: pathetic. and like someone is
robbing a grandma: pathetic. and like someone who doesn't wish to work and
just wanted to live off others: pathetic)

The dictionaries I use only list them as "lonely, lonesome, solitary,
desolate" so I'm wondering if the "pathetic" meaning of 寂しい is widely used (or
used at all)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-08T16:31:15.367
2539
2011-08-08T16:49:31.153
264
question
vocabulary
寂しい can mean "pathetic"?
I hear 寂しい used as a derogatory word, usually in the form 寂しいやつ. The literal
meaning of 寂しいやつ would be “lonely person,” but it means more like “a person
without friends.” So calling someone as 寂しいやつ is equivalent to claiming that
the person has no friends, and it could be an insult.

I consider 寂しいやつ simply as yet another phrase used to insult someone, mostly
independent of whether the speaker really thinks that the referent deserves no
friends or not. I do not know if it is similar to “pathetic” in usage.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-08T16:49:31.153
2541
2011-08-08T16:49:31.153
15
2539
answer