different between sullen vs unkind

English

Etymology

From Middle English solein, from Anglo-Norman soleyn (“alone”), from Old French sole (“single, sole, alone”), from Latin s?lus (“by oneself alone”). The change in meaning from "single" to morose occurred in Middle English.

Pronunciation

• enPR: s?l??n, IPA^(key): /?s?l?n/
• Rhymes: -?l?n
• Hyphenation: sul?len

Adjective

sullen (comparative sullener, superlative sullenest)

1. Having a brooding ill temper; sulky.
   • 1709, Matthew Prior, Pleasure

     And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast.

   • 2007, Steven Wilson, "Normal", Porcupine Tree, Nil Recurring.

2. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.

   a sullen atmosphere

   • 1593, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, IV. v. 88:

     Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;
3. Sluggish; slow.
4. (obsolete) Lonely; solitary; desolate.
5. (obsolete) Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.
6. (obsolete) Obstinate; intractable.
   • a. 1694, John Tillotson, Imprudence of Atheism

     Things are as sullen as we are.

Synonyms

(in a bad mood):

• sulky, morose

Antonyms

• cheerful
• content
• lighthearted
• pleased

Translations

Noun

sullen (plural sullens)

1. (obsolete) One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Piers Plowman to this entry?)

2. (chiefly in the plural) Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness.
   • 1593, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Richard the Second, II. i. 139:

     And let them die that age and sullens have;

   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, I.7:

     [M]y brother […] charged my desire of being excused coming down to sullens, because a certain person had been spoken against, upon whom, as he supposed, my fancy ran.

Anagrams

• unsell

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch sulan

Verb

sullen

1. (auxiliary) must, to have to
2. (auxiliary, negated) may, be allowed to
3. (auxiliary) will, shall, be going to (future tense)
4. (auxiliary, in the past tense) to be about to (inchoative)
5. (modal auxiliary) indicates a possible or hypothetical situation
6. (modal auxiliary) indicates information garnered from a third party that may or may not be reliable

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Alternative forms

• suelen
• s?len
• sellen
• s?len
• sollen

Descendants

• Dutch: zullen
  • Afrikaans: sal
• Limburgish: zölle, zólle

Further reading

• “sullen”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “sullen”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN

Northern Sami

Pronunciation

Verb

s?llen

1. first-person singular past indicative of suollit

English

Etymology

From un- +? kind.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?ka?nd/
• Rhymes: -a?nd

Adjective

unkind (comparative unkinder or more unkind, superlative unkindest or most unkind)

1. Lacking kindness, sympathy, benevolence, gratitude, or similar; cruel, harsh or unjust; ungrateful. [From mid-14thC.]
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 2,^[1]

     Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!

     This was the most unkindest cut of all;

     For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,

     Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms,

     Quite vanquish’d him: then burst his mighty heart;

   • 1720, Alexander Pope (translator), The Iliad of Homer, London: W. Bowyer and Bernard Lintott, Volume 6, Book 24, lines 968-971, p. 189,^[2]

     Yet was it ne’er my Fate, from thee to find

     A Deed ungentle, or a Word unkind:

     When others curst the Auth’ress of their Woe,

     Thy Pity check’d my Sorrows in their Flow:

   • 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Chapter 2,^[3]

     Nobody meant to be unkind, but nobody put themselves out of their way to secure her comfort.

   • 1950 July 3, Politicians Without Politics, Life, page 16,

     Despite the bursitis, Dewey got in a good round of golf, though his cautious game inspired a reporter to make one of the week?s unkindest remarks: “He plays golf like he plays politics — straight down the middle, and short.”

   • 1974, Laurence William Wylie, Village in the Vaucluse, 3rd Edition, page 175,

     We had to learn that to refuse such gifts, which represented serious sacrifice, was more unkind than to accept them.

   • 2000, Edward W. Said, On Lost Causes, in Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, page 540,

     In the strictness with which he holds this view he belongs in the company of the novelists I have cited, except that he is unkinder and less charitable than they are.

2. (obsolete) Not kind; contrary to nature or type; unnatural. [From 13thC.]
   • 1582, Stephen Batman (translator), Batman vppon Bartholome His Booke De Proprietatibus Rerum, London, Book 7, Chapter 33,^[4]

     […] A Feauer is an vnkinde heate, that commeth out of the heart, and passeth into all the members of the bodye, and grieueth the working of the bodye.

   • 1617, John Davies, Wits Bedlam, London, Epigram 116,^[5]

     Crowes will not feed their yong til 9. daies old,

     Because their vnkind colour makes them doubt

     Them to be theirs;

3. (obsolete) Having no race or kindred; childless.
   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis,^[6]

     O, had thy mother borne so hard a mind,

     She had not brought forth thee, but died unkind.

Derived terms

• unkindest cut

Related terms

• unkindly
• unkindness

Anagrams

• Dunkin, nudnik