different between sombre vs dark

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French sombre (“dark”), from Old French sombre, from a verb *sombrer or Latin sub- + umbra. Compare Spanish sombra (“shade; dark part of a picture; ghost”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?mb?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?mb?/
• Rhymes: -?mb?(?)
• Hyphenation: som?bre

Adjective

sombre (comparative sombrer, superlative sombrest) (British spelling, Canadian spelling)

1. Dark; gloomy; shadowy, dimly lit.
   • 2015, Hermann Kauders, Before The Cock Crows (?ISBN), page 9:

     The lady led him into a sombre hallway and disappeared. A moment later the windowless chamber was illuminated by the entry of a heavenly creature emitting a radiance prone to pierce the heart of any youth exposed to it.

2. Dull or dark in colour or brightness.
   • 1877, The Black Band; or, The Mysteries of Midnight, page 47:

     His tall and slender figure, dressed in sombre black, his hair of that peculiar reddish auburn so rarely seen, his flashing black eyes, in which a fitful fire seemed for ever burning; all combined to give something almost of a demoniac air ...

3. Melancholic, gloomy, dreary, dismal; grim.
   • 1845, Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil

     The dinner was silent and sombre; happily it was also short.

   • 2012, Peter Turnbull, Aftermath, Severn House Publishers Ltd (?ISBN)

     A sombre mood, very sombre in fact, thought Hennessey, as he stood against the wall observing the procedure for the police. He had not known a mood more sombre to have previously descended on the room.

4. Grave; extremely serious.

   a sombre situation

Alternative forms

• somber (US)

Synonyms

• melancholy
• dreary
• dire
• dismal

Translations

Noun

sombre (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Gloom; obscurity; duskiness.

Verb

sombre (third-person singular simple present sombres, present participle sombring, simple past and past participle sombred)

1. To make sombre or dark; to make shady.

References

• sombre in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• bromes, ombres, somber

French

Etymology

From Old French sombre, from a verb *sombrer (from a Vulgar Latin *subumbr?re), or from Latin sub + umbra. Cf. also Spanish and Portuguese sombra (“shadow”), likely with influence from sol (“sun”). See also Old French essombre, with a different prefix.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??b?/

Adjective

sombre (plural sombres)

1. dark
2. (derogatory) right, damn, bloody

Synonyms

• foncé
• obscur

Antonyms

• clair

Derived terms

• matière sombre

Descendants

• ? English: sombre

Verb

sombre

1. first-person singular present indicative of sombrer
2. third-person singular present indicative of sombrer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of sombrer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of sombrer
5. second-person singular imperative of sombrer

Further reading

• “sombre” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• ombres

Norman

Etymology

From Old French sombre, from a verb *sombrer (from a Vulgar Latin *subumbr?re), or from Latin sub (“under”) + umbra (“shadow”).

Adjective

sombre m or f

1. (Jersey) sombre, dark

Spanish

Verb

sombre

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of sombrar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of sombrar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of sombrar.
4. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of sombrar.

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: därk, IPA^(key): /d??k/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: därk, IPA^(key): /d??k/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k

Etymology 1

From Middle English derk, from Old English deorc, from Proto-West Germanic *derk (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?erg- (“dim, dull”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?er- (“dull, dirty”).

Adjective

dark (comparative darker, superlative darkest)

1. Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.
   1. (of a source of light) Extinguished.

   2. Deprived of sight; blind.
      • 29 March 1661 (entry), 1818 (first published), John Evelyn, Diary

        He was, I think, at this time quite dark, and so had been for some years.

2. (of colour) Dull or deeper in hue; not bright or light.

   • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.

   • If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.

3. (broadcasting, of a television station) Off the air; not transmitting.
4. Hidden, secret, obscure.
   1. Not clear to the understanding; not easily through; obscure; mysterious; hidden.
      • 1594–, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

        What may seem dark at the first, will afterward be found more plain.

      • 1801, Isaac Watts, The improvement of the mind, or A supplement to the art of logic

        It is the remark of an ingenious writer, should a barbarous Indian, who had never seen a palace or a ship, view their separate and disjointed parts, and observe the pillars, doors, windows, cornices and turrets of the one, or the prow and stern, the ribs and masts, the ropes and shrouds, the sails and tackle of the other, he would be able to form but a very lame and dark idea of either of those excellent and useful inventions.

      • 1881, John Shairp, Aspects of Poetry

        the dark problems of existence
   2. (gambling, of race horses) Having racing capability not widely known.
5. Without moral or spiritual light; sinister, malign.
6. Conducive to hopelessness; depressing or bleak.
   • 1819-1820, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book

     There is, in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

7. Lacking progress in science or the arts; said of a time period.
   • 1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning

     The age wherein he lived was dark, but he / Could not want light who taught the world to see.

   • 1837, Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

     The tenth century used to be reckoned by mediaeval historians as the darkest part of this intellectual night.

8. Extremely sad, depressing, or somber, typically due to, or marked by, a tragic or undesirable event.

   September 11, 2001, the day when four terrorist attacks destroyed the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, is often referred to as America's dark day.
9. With emphasis placed on the unpleasant aspects of life; said of a work of fiction, a work of nonfiction presented in narrative form or a portion of either.

Synonyms

• (relative lack of light): dim, gloomy, see also Thesaurus:dark
• (sinister or secret): hidden, secret, sinister, see also Thesaurus:hidden
• (without morals): malign, sinister, see also Thesaurus:evil
• (of colour): deep, see also Thesaurus:dark colour
• (conducive to hopelessness): hopeless, negative, pessimistic
• (lacking progress): unenlightened

Antonyms

• (relative lack of light): bright, light, lit
• (of colour): bright, light, pale

Derived terms

Related terms

• darken
• darkling
• darkness

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English derk, derke, dirke, dyrke, from the adjective (see above), or possibly from an unrecorded Old English *dierce, *diercu (“dark, darkness”).

Noun

dark (usually uncountable, plural darks)

1. A complete or (more often) partial absence of light.

2. (uncountable) Ignorance.
   • Till we perceive it by our own understandings, we are as much in the dark, and as void of knowledge, as before.

3. (uncountable) Nightfall.

4. A dark shade or dark passage in a painting, engraving, etc.
   • 1695, John Dryden (translator), Observations on the Art of Painting by Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy

     The lights may serve for a repose to the darks, and the darks to the lights.

Synonyms

• (absence of light): darkness
• (ignorance): cluelessness, knowledgelessness, unawareness
• (nightfall): crepusculum, evenfall, mirkning; see also Thesaurus:dusk

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English derken, from Old English deorcian, from Proto-West Germanic *derk?n.

Verb

dark (third-person singular simple present darks, present participle darking, simple past and past participle darked)

1. (intransitive) To grow or become dark, darken.
2. (intransitive) To remain in the dark, lurk, lie hidden or concealed.
3. (transitive) To make dark, darken; to obscure.

See also

• black
• shadow

Anagrams

• k-rad

Italian

Etymology

English

Adjective

dark (invariable)

1. dark (used especially to describe a form of punk music)