sour – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of sour

Adjective: sour

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparativesourer
Superlativesourest

Perifrastic

Sample Sentences

  • Lemons have a sour taste.
  • All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite. [1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:]
  • 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. [2018 May 16, Adam Rogers, “The Fundamental Nihilism of Yanny vs. Laurel”, in Wired:]
  • Don't drink that milk; it's turned sour.
  • His sour breath makes it unpleasing to talk to him.
  • 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. [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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:]
  • sour land
  • a sour marsh
  • sour gas smells like rotten eggs
  • Let me embrace thee, sour adversity [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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:]
  • 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. [2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes, “Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport:]
  • 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). [2010, Aniruddh D. Patel, Music, Language, and the Brain, page 201:]

Adjectives inflected like sour

sallow, smooth, slight, sleigh, sordid, somber, shweet, shrill, shrewd, yellow, yaller, hard knock, DRY, Greek, cut short, unquiet, unclean, indiscreet, chipper, straicht, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *súHros
3. Proto-Germanic *sūraz
4. Proto-West Germanic *sūr
5. Old English sūr
6. Middle English sour
7. English sour
8. 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”).
9. 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”),
10. Polish ser (“cheese”),
11. Czech sýr (“cheese”),
12. Slovak syr (“cheese”),
13. Russian сырой (syroj, “raw”),
14. Ukrainian сири́й (syrýj, “raw”),
15. Old Church Slavonic сꙑръ (syrŭ, “moist, cheese”). See: Dutch Adjectives 'zuur', German Adjectives 'sauer', French Adjectives 'sur'.

Verbs referencing "sour"

Dutch Adjectives zuur, French Adjectives sur, German Adjectives sauer.