different between sombre vs desolate
sombre
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)
- 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.
- 2015, Hermann Kauders, Before The Cock Crows (?ISBN), page 9:
- 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 ...
- 1877, The Black Band; or, The Mysteries of Midnight, page 47:
- 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.
- 1845, Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil
- Grave; extremely serious.
- a sombre situation
Alternative forms
- somber (US)
Synonyms
- melancholy
- dreary
- dire
- dismal
Translations
Noun
sombre (uncountable)
- (obsolete) Gloom; obscurity; duskiness.
Verb
sombre (third-person singular simple present sombres, present participle sombring, simple past and past participle sombred)
- 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)
- dark
- (derogatory) right, damn, bloody
Synonyms
- foncé
- obscur
Antonyms
- clair
Derived terms
- matière sombre
Descendants
- ? English: sombre
Verb
sombre
- first-person singular present indicative of sombrer
- third-person singular present indicative of sombrer
- first-person singular present subjunctive of sombrer
- third-person singular present subjunctive of sombrer
- 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
- (Jersey) sombre, dark
Spanish
Verb
sombre
- First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of sombrar.
- Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of sombrar.
- Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of sombrar.
- Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of sombrar.
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desolate
English
Etymology
From Middle English desolate, from Latin d?s?l?tus, past participle of d?s?l?re (“to leave alone, make lonely, lay waste, desolate”), from s?lus (“alone”).
Pronunciation
- (adjective) IPA(key): /?d?s?l?t/
- (verb) IPA(key): /?d?s?le?t/
Adjective
desolate (comparative more desolate, superlative most desolate)
- Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.
- a desolate isle; a desolate wilderness; a desolate house
- Barren and lifeless.
- Made unfit for habitation or use because of neglect, destruction etc.
- desolate altars
- Dismal or dreary.
- Sad, forlorn and hopeless.
- He was left desolate by the early death of his wife.
- voice of the poor and desolate
Translations
Verb
desolate (third-person singular simple present desolates, present participle desolating, simple past and past participle desolated)
- To deprive of inhabitants.
- 1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Vicissitude of Things” in Essays, London: H. Herringman et al., 1691, p. 204,[1]
- If you consider well of the People of the West-Indies, it is very probable, that they are a newer or younger People, than the People of the old World. And it is much more likely, that the destruction that hath heretofore been there, was not by Earthquakes, […] but rather, it was Desolated by a particular Deluge: For Earthquakes are seldom in those Parts.
- 1717, John Dryden (translator), Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Dublin: G. Risk et al., 1727, Volume I, Book I, p. 16,[2]
- O Righteous Themis, if the Pow’rs above
- By Pray’rs are bent to pity, and to love;
- If humane Miseries can move their Mind;
- If yet they can forgive, and yet be kind;
- Tell how we may restore, by second birth,
- Mankind, and people desolated Earth.
- 1891, Charles Creighton, A History of Epidemics in Britain, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 1, p. 23,[3]
- York was so desolated just before the survey that it is not easy to estimate its ordinary population […]
- 1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Vicissitude of Things” in Essays, London: H. Herringman et al., 1691, p. 204,[1]
- To devastate or lay waste somewhere.
- 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, 2nd edition, 1809, Volume I, Book 3, p. 118,[4]
- Then Moath pointed where a cloud
- Of Locusts, from the desolated fields
- Of Syria, wing’d their way.
- 1905, H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia, Chapter 2, § 3,[5]
- But in Utopia there will be wide stretches of cheerless or unhealthy or toilsome or dangerous land with never a household; there will be regions of mining and smelting, black with the smoke of furnaces and gashed and desolated by mines, with a sort of weird inhospitable grandeur of industrial desolation, and the men will come thither and work for a spell and return to civilisation again, washing and changing their attire in the swift gliding train.
- 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, 2nd edition, 1809, Volume I, Book 3, p. 118,[4]
- To abandon or forsake something.
- To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.
- 1914, Arnold Bennett, The Author’s Craft, London: Hodder & Stoughton, Part II, p. 44,[6]
- It is not altogether uncommon to hear a reader whose heart has been desolated by the poignancy of a narrative complain that the writer is unemotional.
- 1948, Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, New York: Scribner, Chapter 36, p. 271,[7]
- Kumalo stood shocked at the frightening and desolating words.
- 1914, Arnold Bennett, The Author’s Craft, London: Hodder & Stoughton, Part II, p. 44,[6]
Related terms
- desolation
Translations
Further reading
- desolate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- desolate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- desolate at OneLook Dictionary Search
German
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -a?t?
Adjective
desolate
- inflection of desolat:
- strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
- strong nominative/accusative plural
- weak nominative all-gender singular
- weak accusative feminine/neuter singular
Italian
Adjective
desolate f pl
- feminine plural of desolato
Latin
Participle
d?s?l?te
- vocative masculine singular of d?s?l?tus
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