execrable

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The Word of the Day for September 17 is:

execrable   \EK-si-kruh-bul\   adjective 
     1 : deserving to be execrated : detestable
    *2 : very bad : wretched

Example sentence:
     "The room is dirty, the mattress is lumpy, and the heater doesn't work, 
and I refuse to spend the night in such execrable conditions!" Elaine informed 
the motel's manager.
 
Did you know?
     He or she who is cursed faces execrable conditions. Keep this in mind to 
remember that "execrable" is a descendant of the Latin verb "exsecrari," 
meaning "to put under a curse." Since its earliest uses in English, beginning 
in the 14th century, "execrable" has meant "deserving or fit to be execrated," 
the reference being to things so abominable as to be worthy of formal 
denouncement (such as "execrable crimes"). But in the 19th century we lightened 
it up a bit, and our "indescribably bad" sense has since been applied to 
everything from roads ("execrable London pavement" -- Sir Walter Scott) to food 
("The coffee in the station house was ... execrable." -- Clarence Day) to, 
inevitably, the weather ("the execrable weather of the past fortnight" -- _The 
[London] Evening Standard_).

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.