Today the word "adversity", the meaning of which can be defined as "unhappiness, ill-being or failure", is somewhat outdated. Most often, this noun is used in poems and, as a rule, in the plural. For example, in the congratulatory lines for the birthday: “Let years fly like birds, let all adversities pass you by.”
Parsing a word by composition
According to the modern rules of the Russian language, this feminine noun can only be divided into two parts - the root and the ending “-a”. It is likely that earlier the word “-year-” was the root of the word and it was formed by attaching two prefixes: negative “not-” and denoting the upward movement “asc-”.
Consider the meaning of the word "adversity" on the example of the synonyms between the verbs "grow" and "grow." If in the first case we can only talk about a specific action applicable to some object (to grow a garden, a tree, a child), then in the second, the verb takes on a higher meaning due to the prefix “vz-”. For example: "to cultivate a talent, a dream."
The same thing happens with the word "vzgoda" existing in some dialects. If “pleasing” means rendering a pleasant service to someone, then “pleasing” probably implied an excellent degree of this action - “making happy”. Therefore, the meaning of the word “adversity” at the expense of the negative prefix takes the opposite meaning and is synonymous with the noun “misfortune”.
Possible variants of the origin of the word
Once again, we call for help the verbs "grow" and "grow". We get another synonymous pair of “benefit” and “gain”. The second noun, having a similar meaning to the first, could mean a very large, colossal profit. Now it is easy to understand the meaning of the word “adversity”, it is an incredible in size, very painful loss.
As you know, the well-being of ancient people living in subsistence farming was largely dependent on the fruits of agriculture. A crop failure threatened to turn into numerous troubles and misfortunes. Suppose that the word "adversity", the meaning, interpretation and meaning of which we are trying to understand, has the same root as in the verb "fly" - "wait."
In spring, a man plowed the earth, sowed rye or wheat. In the fall, he hopes to collect grain, grind flour, so that there is something to feed his family in winter. And suddenly, due to drought or some other weather conditions, the entire crop is dying. Thus, adversity is an unjustified expectation that led to hunger, illness, suffering.
It is also impossible to exclude the version that the word "adversity" meant a prolonged bad weather, natural disasters. This also did not promise the farmers anything good.