meaning - a word for a person who never attains a desire or goal


Is there a word in English that describes a person who never attains a desire or goal?


I have found loser or dud or flop but these all seem to be informal, is there a better, more formal word that describes such a thing?



Answer



If you're willing to use an eponym, consider referring to the person as "a Sisyphus." Here is the entry for Sisyphus in Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003):



Sisyphus (14c) : a legendary king of Corinth condemned eternally to repeat the cycle of rolling a heavy rock up a hill in Hades only to have it roll down again as it nears the top



This noun has yielded the adjective Sisyphean, as well, meaning, according to the Eleventh Collegiate:



of, relating to, or suggestive of the labors of Sisyphus



The crucial characteristic of a Sisyphus is the person's inability to successfully complete a specified task (albeit, in the original Sisyphus's case, an impossible task imposed on him as a punishment for misdeeds in life). A Google Books search for "a Sisyphus" turns up examples like this one from Transactions of the National Safety Congress (1927):



The construction safety engineer cannot be a Sisyphus.


Sisyphus was the chap that was always falling down at the moment of supreme success. He could never get over the top.



And this one from Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy (2015):



A workoholic is a Sisyphus endlessly pushing a stone uphill and beginning again when it rolls down. He is now engaged in pushing the stone uphill and then chasing it when it rolls down and then beginning to push it up again.



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