different between sombre vs ombre

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 1

Borrowed from French hombre, from Spanish hombre, literally, a man, from Latin homo. Doublet of hombre. See human.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??m.b?/, /??m.b?e?/

Noun

ombre (uncountable)

1. A Spanish card game, usually played by three people. It involves forty cards, omitting the ranks of 8, 9 and 10.

   • Belinda now, whom chirst of fame invites,
     Burns to encounter two advent'rous Knights,
     At Ombre singly to decide their doom
     And swells her breast with conquests yet to com

   • 1728, Edward Young, The Love of Fame

     When ombre calls, his hand and heart are free, / And, joined to two, he fails not to make three.

Translations

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “French ombre?”)

Noun

ombre (plural ombres)

1. (archaic) A large Mediterranean food fish Umbrina cirrosa

Synonyms

• umbra, umbrine

Etymology 3

Borrowed from French ombre ("shade"). Doublet of umber.

Noun

ombre (plural ombres)

1. (colors) A gradual blending of one color hue to another, usually moving tints and shades from light to dark.

Related terms

• ombré
• ombrée

Anagrams

• B-more, brome, omber

Aragonese

Etymology

From Latin homo, hominem.

Noun

ombre m (plural ombres)

1. man
2. a 17th-century Spanish card game (c. 1650-1660), usually played by three persons with a pack of 40 cards.
3. the lone player in this game undertaking to win the pool against two defenders.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??b?/
• Homophones: hombre, hombres, ombres, ombrent

Etymology 1

From Old French ombre, onbre, from Latin umbra, probably from Old Latin *omra, possibly from a Proto-Indo-European *h?mr-u-, *h?mrup-.

Noun

ombre f (plural ombres)

1. shade, shadow
2. darkness
3. ghost

Derived terms

Related terms

Verb

ombre

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

Etymology 2

Latin umbra (“drumfish”), probably the same etymon as above.

Noun

ombre m (plural ombres)

1. (Ichthyology) A fish of Osteichthyes of the freshwater family Salmonidae, of the genus Thymallus.

Synonyms

• corp
• thymalle

Anagrams

• brome

Further reading

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

Friulian

Etymology

From Latin umbra.

Noun

ombre f (plural ombris)

1. shadow
2. shade

Related terms

• ombrî
• ombrôs

Galician

Etymology

From Latin umbra.

Noun

ombre f (plural ombres)

1. shadow
2. shade

Related terms

• sombra
• sôma

Italian

Noun

ombre f

1. plural of ombra

Ladino

Etymology

From Old Spanish, from Latin homo, hominem.

Noun

ombre m (Latin spelling, Hebrew spelling ???????)

1. man

Norman

Etymology

From Old French onbre, from Latin umbra.

Noun

ombre f (plural ombres)

1. shadow (poorly lit area)

Old French

Noun

ombre f (oblique plural ombres, nominative singular ombre, nominative plural ombres)

1. Alternative form of onbre

Spanish

Noun

ombre m (plural ombres)

1. Obsolete spelling of hombre

Venetian

Noun

ombre

1. plural of ombra