different between sombre vs morose

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 French morose, from Latin m?r?sus (“particular, scrupulous, fastidious, self-willed, wayward, capricious, fretful, peevish”), from m?s (“way, custom, habit, self-will”). See moral.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /m?????s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /m???o?s/

Adjective

morose (comparative more morose or moroser, superlative most morose or morosest)

1. Sullen, gloomy; showing a brooding ill humour.

   Synonyms: melancholy, sulky, crabby, glum, grouchy, gruff, moody

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• morose in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• morose in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• morose at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Romeos, mooers, more so, moreso, roomes

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin m?r?sus (“peevish, wayward”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?.?oz/
• Homophone: moroses

Adjective

morose (plural moroses)

1. sullen, gloomy, morose

Derived terms

• morosement
• morosité

Related terms

• mœurs

Further reading

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

Italian

Adjective

morose

1. feminine plural of moroso

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /mo??ro?.se/, [mo???o?s??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /mo?ro.se/, [m?????s??]

Adjective

m?r?se

1. vocative masculine singular of m?r?sus

References

• morose in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• morose in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• morose in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette