sour
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *súHros
Proto-Germanic *sūraz
Proto-West Germanic *sūr
Old English sūr
Middle English sour
English sour
From Middle English sour, from Old English sūr (“sour”), from Proto-West Germanic *sūr, from Proto-Germanic *sūraz (“sour”), from Proto-Indo-European *súHros (“sour”).
Cognate with West Frisian soer, Dutch zuur (“sour”), Low German suur, German sauer (“sour”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish sur (“sour”), French sur (“sour”), Faroese súrur (“sour”), Icelandic súr (“sour, bitter”),
Polish ser (“cheese”),
Czech sýr (“cheese”),
Slovak syr (“cheese”),
Russian сырой (syroj, “raw”),
Ukrainian сири́й (syrýj, “raw”),
Old Church Slavonic сꙑръ (syrŭ, “moist, cheese”).
Inflected forms:
form: sourer
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: sourest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: sower
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sowre
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sours
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: sower
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sowre
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sours
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: souring
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: soured
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: soured
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: sour
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: sour
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: soured
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: sour
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: sourest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: soured
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: souredst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: sours
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: soureth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: soured
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: sour
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: soured
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: sour
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: soured
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: sour
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: souring
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: soured
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: sower
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sowre
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Tasting of acidity.
pos: adj
examples: Lemons have a sour taste.
All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite.
A few types of molecules get sensed by receptors on the tongue. Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades.
gloss: Made rancid by fermentation, etc.
pos: adj
examples: Don't drink that milk; it's turned sour.
gloss: Tasting or smelling rancid.
pos: adj
examples: His sour breath makes it unpleasing to talk to him.
gloss: Hostile or unfriendly.
pos: adj
examples: He gave me a sour look.
He was a scholar […] / Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, / But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.
gloss: Excessively acidic and thus infertile. (of soil)
pos: adj
examples: sour land
a sour marsh
gloss: Containing excess sulfur. (of petroleum)
pos: adj
examples: sour gas smells like rotten eggs
gloss: Unfortunate or unfavorable.
pos: adj
examples: Let me embrace thee, sour adversity
The result may not quite give the Wearsiders a sweet ending to what has been a sour week, following allegations of sexual assault and drug possession against defender Titus Bramble, but it does at least demonstrate that their spirit remains strong in the face of adversity.
gloss: Off-pitch, out of tune.
pos: adj
examples: Unlike what the name implies, there is nothing inherently wrong with a sour note: It is perfectly well-tuned note that would sound normal in another context (and which presumably would not sound sour to someone unfamiliar with tonal music).
gloss: The sensation of a sour taste.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A drink made with whiskey, lemon or lime juice and sugar.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Any cocktail containing lemon or lime juice.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
countable
uncountable
gloss: A sweet/candy having a sharply sour taste.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: “You know I like them candies, especially the lemon sours.”
gloss: A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: For many Years of Sorrow can dispense;
A Dram of Sweet is worth a Pound of Sour
gloss: The acidic solution used in souring fabric.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: To make sour.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Too much lemon juice will sour the recipe.
gloss: To become sour.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: So the sun's heat, with different powers, / Ripens the grape, the liquor sours.
gloss: To spoil or mar; to make disenchanted.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: To sour your happiness I must report, / The queen is dead.
He was prudent and industrious, and so good a husbandman, that he might have led a very easy and comfortable life, had not an arrant vixen of a wife soured his domestic quiet.
gloss: To become disenchanted.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: We broke up after our relationship soured.
gloss: To make (soil) cold and unproductive.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: stagnant water , which tends to sour the soil
gloss: To macerate (lime) and render it fit for plaster or mortar.
pos: verb
gloss: To process (fabric) after bleaching, using hydrochloric acid or sulphuric acid to wash out the lime.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
Synonyms: acetose
acetous
acid
acidulent
sour
tart
Antonyms: sweet
Related words: sourness
Derived words: fine and dandy like sour candy
for sour apples
go sour
hot and sour soup
leave a sour taste in one's mouth
New York sour
oversour
sorrel
sourball
sour beer
sourbelly
sourberry
sourbread
sourbush
sour cherry
sour corn
sour cream
sour crude
sour diesel
sourdough
souren
sourfaced
sourfaux
sour fig
sourful
sour gas
sour gourd
sour grapes
sour grass
sourgrass
sour gum
sourhead
sourhearted
sour honey
sourish
sour krout
sourly
sour mash
sour milk
sour mix
sourness
sour note
sour on
sourpuss
sour puss
sour shchi
soursop
sour stomach
sourstuff
sour-sweet
sour tooth
sourweed
sourwood
sour worm
sweet-and-sour
sweet-and-sour sauce
the grapes are sour anyway
amaretto sour
Boston sour
laundry sour
pisco sour
whiskey sour
besour
unsour
Translations: