I haven’t been able to get a good answer yet, that’s why I come to the true minds of the web - the sdmb.
What’s the opposite of “optimal”, when used in the context of “most efficient”? In other words, what is a word for “least efficient” that is the contrary of optimal?
I propose pessimal.
FUBAR?
Microsoft?
Sub-optimal is the actual antonym for optimal. Optimal meaning “most efficient”, sub-optimal meaning “not most efficient.”
Now “least efficient” is something completely different.
Pessimal is mentioned in FOLDOC and the Jargon File as the logical antonym for optimal, with a meaning of ‘least optimal’.
I admit that SmackFu has a point as well: the antonym could mean ‘not optimal’ too.
Googling mostly revealed variant definitions that looked like they’d been based on the Jargon File definition.
Some words have more than one antonym, I guess…
worst?
least efficient?
wastefullest?
You win, IMHO. Pessimal is a real word.
abismal?
Pessimal is what The Jargon File gives, so that’s that.
At least as far as J. Random Hacker is concerned.
“Pessimal” is the answer that I’ve heard already, but it’s not the correct context I’m asking for.
If I were to say “The system is running at optimal efficiency”, I don’t think that replacing optimal with pessimal would make sense. Y’all understand what I’m saying, I’m sure. Optimal and Pessimal are indeed opposites, but only if you’re intending optimal to mean “positive oriented”, which is not the meaning I intended to project.
Saying “sub-optimal” seems like a cheat. It’s just as simple as saying “un-optimal” or “anti-optimal”, neither being “optimal” choices of vocabulary.
thanks for trying though
Perhaps “optimal ineffiency” then? Take the opposite of effiency instead of optimal…
Not a perfect match but how about erratic.
In my experience, “crappily” works in common usage.
Minimal?
Marginal?
As in, NOT optimal?
Questionable?
It is a pretty widely used term… sub means “below”.
To truly be pessimal (as bad as possible) a system would be worse than neutral - it would be actively causing havoc.
How about “ineffective”? It would seem to me that the opposite of most efficient would be to do nothing at all.
Well, the intensive form of “pessimal” is “most pessimal” - does that convey things properly? I agree, BTW, that “pessimal” alone is ambiguous, but it’s the best word we’ve got.
“Pessimal” was included in the 1993 OED Additions Series, with usage quotations from 1960, 1977, 1978, and 1987. Version 4.0 of the Oxford English Dictionary (Second Edition) on CD-ROM, gives the definition as “Worst or least favourable; that is at the worst possible extreme.”