Meaning most unhappy. [Said] in irony. 'Pirouettes' is what Aristophanes is calling the sons of the poet Karkinos,[1] whom he has previously called 'quails' and 'long-shaped wallet-necks' because of their bodily sharpness.[2] Alternatively, joking with the name karkinos ["crab"]; for crabs, just like strobiloi, are hard-shelled.[3] Or on account of being whirled about in the dance; since pirouettes also have [the properties] of pine-cones in a way. Or because a pirouette is a turning-round. So [Aristophanes] did call [them] pirouettes, insofar as elsewhere [he] also [called them] stork-necked.[4]
And Sophocles [says]: '[sc. I am] not one accounted happy for his eminent fate'. Meaning [for a fate] not good, but bad. Not of am eminent fate where happiness is concerned, but on the contrary, the extremity of unhappiness.[5]