dour (redirected from dourness)

dour  (dr, dour)

adj. dour·er, dour·est

1. Marked by sternness or harshness; forbidding: a dour, self-sacrificing life.

2. Silently ill-humored; gloomy: the proverbially dour New England Puritan.

3. Sternly obstinate; unyielding: a dour determination.

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[Middle English, possibly from Middle Irish dúr, probably from Latin drus, hard; see deru- in Indo-European roots.]

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dourly adv.

dourness n.

Usage Note: The word dour, which is etymologically related to duress and endure, traditionally rhymes with tour. The variant pronunciation that rhymes with sour is, however, widely used and must be considered acceptable. In a recent survey, 65 percent of the Usage Panel preferred the traditional pronunciation, and 33 percent preferred the variant.

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dour [doo-er, rhymes with tower]

Adjective

sullen and unfriendly [probably from Latin durus hard]

dourness n

Thesaurus

Adj.	1.	dour - stubbornly unyielding; "dogged persistence"; "dour determination"; "the most vocal and pertinacious of all the critics"; "a mind not gifted to discover truth but tenacious to hold it"- T.S.Eliot; "men tenacious of opinion" dogged, pertinacious, unyielding, tenacious, persistent obstinate, stubborn, unregenerate - tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield
	2.	dour - harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance; "a dour, self-sacrificing life"; "a forbidding scowl"; "a grim man loving duty more than humanity"; "undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron claw"- J.M.Barrie forbidding, grim unpleasant - disagreeable to the senses, to the mind, or feelings ; "an unpleasant personality"; "unpleasant repercussions"; "unpleasant odors"
	3.	dour - showing a brooding ill humor; "a dark scowl"; "the proverbially dour New England Puritan"; "a glum, hopeless shrug"; "he sat in moody silence"; "a morose and unsociable manner"; "a saturnine, almost misanthropic young genius"- Bruce Bliven; "a sour temper"; "a sullen crowd" moody, morose, glowering, sullen, glum, saturnine, sour, dark ill-natured - having an irritable and unpleasant disposition

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dour

adjective gloomy, forbidding, grim, sour, dismal, dreary, sullen, unfriendly, morose << OPPOSITE cheery

Translations

dour [duəʳ] adj → austère

dour [duəʳ] adj → mürrisch, verdrießlich

dour [duəʳ] adj → arcigno/a