sour

English

Alternative forms

• sower, sowre (obsolete)

Etymology

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, Swedish and Norwegian sur, 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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsaʊə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsaʊɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊə(ɹ)
• Rhymes: -aʊ.ə(ɹ)

Adjective

sour (comparative sourer, superlative sourest)

1. Tasting of acidity.

   Lemons have a sour taste.

   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , 3rd edition, London: William Rawley; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC:

     All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite.

   • 2018 May 16, Adam Rogers, “The Fundamental Nihilism of Yanny vs. Laurel”, in Wired:

     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.

2. Made rancid by fermentation, etc.

   Don't drink that milk; it's turned sour.

3. Tasting or smelling rancid.

   His sour breath makes it unpleasing to talk to him.

4. (of a person's character) Hostile or unfriendly.

   He gave me a sour look.

   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     He was a scholar […] / Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, / But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.

5. Excessively acidic and thus infertile. (of soil)

   sour land

   a sour marsh

6. Containing excess sulfur. (of petroleum)

   sour gas smells like rotten eggs

7. Unfortunate or unfavorable.
   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Let me embrace thee, sour adversity

   • 2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes, “Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎:

     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.

8. (music) Off-pitch, out of tune.
   • 2010, Aniruddh D. Patel, Music, Language, and the Brain, page 201:

     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).

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “soil, petroleum”): sweet

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Basic tastes in English (layout · text)
sweet	sour	salty	bitter	spicy	savory

Noun

sour (countable and uncountable, plural sours)

1. The sensation of a sour taste.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

2. A drink made with whiskey, lemon or lime juice and sugar.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

3. (by extension) Any cocktail containing lemon or lime juice.
4. A sour or acid substance; whatever produces a painful effect.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For many Years of Sorrow can dispense;
     A Dram of Sweet is worth a Pound of Sour

5. The acidic solution used in souring fabric.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

sour (third-person singular simple present sours, present participle souring, simple past and past participle soured)

1. (transitive) To make sour.

   Too much lemon juice will sour the recipe.

2. (intransitive) To become sour.
   • 1720, Jonathan Swift, To Stella, on transcribing my Poems:

     So the sun's heat, with different powers, / Ripens the grape, the liquor sours.

3. (transitive) To spoil or mar; to make disenchanted.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     To sour your happiness I must report, / The queen is dead.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A Millar, , →OCLC:

     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.

4. (intransitive) To become disenchanted.

   We broke up after our relationship soured.

5. (transitive) To make (soil) cold and unproductive.
   • 1832, Joseph Harrison, Sir Joseph Paxton, The Horticultural Register, page 396:

     stagnant water , which tends to sour the soil

6. To macerate (lime) and render it fit for plaster or mortar.
7. (transitive) To process (fabric) after bleaching, using hydrochloric acid or sulphuric acid to wash out the lime.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• besour
• unsour

Translations

Anagrams

• Ruso, ours

French

Adjective

sour (feminine soure, masculine plural sours, feminine plural soures)

1. (nonstandard) Alternative form of sûr

Preposition

sour

1. (nonstandard) Alternative form of sur

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English sūr.

Alternative forms

• sower, soure, sowre

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /suːr/

Adjective

sour

1. sour, acidic, bitter
2. foul-smelling, rancid
3. fermented, curdled
4. unpleasant, unattractive

Derived terms

• sour dogh

Descendants

• English: sour
• Scots: sour

Etymology 2

From Old French essorer.

Verb

sour

1. Alternative form of soren (“to soar”)

Romansch

Alternative forms

• sora (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran)

Etymology

From Latin soror.

Noun

sour f (plural sours)

1. (Puter, Vallader) sister

Coordinate terms

• (in terms of gender):
  • (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Vallader) frar
  • (Puter) frer