Both Uses of
propitious
in
Middlemarch
- I am sorry to say that only the third day after the propitious events at Houndsley Fred Vincy had fallen into worse spirits than he had known in his life before.†
Chpt 3 *
- That was an unpropitious hour for coming home: it was too early to gain the moral support under ennui of dressing his person for dinner, and too late to undress his mind of the day's frivolous ceremony and affairs, so as to be prepared for a good plunge into the serious business of study.†
Chpt 4unpropitious = unfavorablestandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unpropitious means not and reverses the meaning of propitious. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
Definition:
favorable (circumstances suggesting good things to come)