infelicitous
awkward or not well-suited to the occasion
Roots
- -ous / -ious: full of or marked by a quality
- felic: happy, lucky, fruitful, or apt
- im- / in- (not): not or without
Other words with the felic root
- felicitous: well-suited, apt, or pleasingly right
Infelicitous removes the lucky fit from felicitous: the choice lands wrong for the moment.
The phrase was accurate but infelicitous at a memorial.
Felicitous means apt, graceful, or well-suited. Infelicitous is the miss: a word, gesture, example, or timing that does not fit the occasion.