different between sombre vs implacable

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

Etymology

From Middle English impl?c?ble (“immitigable, unappeasable”) from Old French implacable (“harsh, unrelenting; implacable”) (modern French implacable), from Latin impl?c?bilis (“unappeasable, implacable; irreconcilable”), from im- (variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’)) + pl?c?bilis (“placable; appeasing, moderating, pacifying, propitiating; acceptable”) (from pl?c? (“to assuage, pacify, placate; to appease; to reconcile”) + -bilis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a capacity or worth of being acted upon)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?plæk?b(?)l/, /-?ple?-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?plæk?b?l/
• Hyphenation: im?pla?ca?ble

Adjective

implacable (comparative more implacable, superlative most implacable)

1. Not able to be placated or appeased.

   Synonyms: (obsolete) impacable, irreconcilable, unassuageable, (obsolete) unplacable, unpleasable

   Antonyms: appeasable, assuageable, pacable, pacifiable, placable
2. Impossible to prevent or stop; inexorable, unrelenting, unstoppable.

   Synonyms: relentless, unremitting, unyielding
3. Adamant; immovable.

Derived terms

• implacability
• implacableness
• implacably

Related terms

Translations

References

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin impl?c?bilis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /im.pl??ka.bl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /im.pla?ka.ble/

Adjective

implacable (masculine and feminine plural implacables)

1. implacable (not able to be placated or appeased)

Derived terms

• implacablement

Related terms

• implacabilitat

Further reading

• “implacable” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

French

Etymology

From Latin impl?c?bilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.pla.kabl/

Adjective

implacable (plural implacables)

1. implacable, harsh, unrelenting

Derived terms

• implacabilité
• implacablement

Further reading

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

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin impl?c?bilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /impla?kable/, [?m.pla?ka.??le]
• Hyphenation: im?pla?ca?ble

Adjective

implacable (plural implacables)

1. implacable, harsh, unrelenting

Derived terms

• implacablemente

Related terms

• aplacar
• implacabilidad

Further reading

• “implacable” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.