dour

See also: dōur and ďour

English

WOTD – 8 November 2010

Etymology

Borrowed from Scots dour, possibly from Latin dūrus (“hard, stern”), via Middle Irish dúr. Compare French dur, Catalan dur, Italian duro, Portuguese duro, Romanian dur, Spanish duro. Doublet of dure.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdʊə/, /ˈdaʊə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdʊɹ/, /ˈdaʊɚ/, /ˈdaʊ.ɚ/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈdur/
• Rhymes: -aʊə(ɹ), -ʊə(ɹ)
• Homophones: Daur, doer, door, dower (depending on speaker) The traditional Scottish pronunciation of this originally Scottish word is doer.

Adjective

dour (comparative dourer or more dour, superlative dourest or most dour)

1. Stern, harsh and forbidding.

   Synonyms: forbidding, harsh, severe, stern

   • 1961 October, “Editorial: The importance of the "Roadrailer"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 577:

     The principal reason is that, in competition with modern road vehicles running over motorways, B.R. has a dour struggle to match the performance of its rivals cost-wise.

   • 2017, chapter 6, in Elizabeth Manton, transl., Utopia for Realists, Kindle edition, Bloomsbury Publishing, translation of Gratis geld voor iedereen by Rutger Bregman, page 149:

     I was reminded of the dour priests and salesmen of the nineteenth century who believed that the plebs wouldn’t be able to handle getting the vote, or a decent wage, or, least of all, leisure, and who backed the seventy-hour workweek as an efficacious instrument in the fight against liquor.

   • 2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 4, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part II. The Neoliberal Order, 1970–2020:

     Hayek had contributed the foreword, in which he declared that “he got so fascinated” by the book—high praise from the dour Viennese sage—that he read it from start to finish in one sitting.

2. Unyielding and obstinate.

   Synonym: stubborn

3. Expressing gloom or melancholy.

   Synonyms: dejected, gloomy, melancholic, sullen

Derived terms

• dourly
• dourness

Translations

stern, harsh and forbidding

• Bulgarian: строг (bg) (strog), суров (bg) (surov)
• Czech: přísný (cs)
• Dutch: afschrikwekkend (nl)
• Esperanto: aǔstera, severa (eo)
• Finnish: tyly (fi)
• French: sévère (fr), austère (fr), dur (fr), rigoriste (fr), rigoureux (fr)
• Galician: severo m, rigoroso m, rigorista m
• German: mürrisch (de), rau (de), verdrießlich (de), griesgrämig (de), unwirsch (de), abweisend (de)
• Italian: austero (it) m, severo (it), arcigno (it), rigoroso (it)
• Maori: taimaha
• Polish: srogi (pl)
• Portuguese: duro (pt) m, rígido (pt) m
• Russian: стро́гий (ru) (strógij), суро́вый (ru) (suróvyj)
• Spanish: severo (es), austero (es), duro (es), rigorista, riguroso (es)
• Ukrainian: суворий m (suvoryj), строгий m (strohyj)

unyielding and obstinate

• Czech: zarputilý (cs)
• Dutch: onverbiddelijk (nl)
• Finnish: itsepäinen (fi)
• French: rigide (fr), inflexible (fr), obstiné (fr), entêté (fr), têtu (fr)
• German: unnachgiebig (de), halsstarrig (de), starrköpfig (de), störrisch (de)
• Italian: rigido (it), indeflessibile, inflessibile (it) m, ostinato (it) m
• Russian: непрекло́нный (ru) (nepreklónnyj)
• Spanish: rígido (es), inflexible (es), obstinado (es), terco (es), despiadado (es)

expressing gloom or melancholy

• Bulgarian: мрачен (bg) (mračen), намусен (bg) (namusen)
• Catalan: depriment (ca)
• Czech: zasmušilý
• Dutch: stuurs (nl)
• Finnish: alakuloinen (fi)
• French: morose (fr), taciturne (fr), mélancolique (fr), lugubre (fr)
• Galician: lúgubre (gl) m or f
• German: düster (de), dumpf (de), trist (de)
• Italian: tetro (it) m, triste (it) m, lugubre (it) m, cupo (it)
• Maori: tukumaru, pōkēkē, whakarikiriki
• Polish: ponury (pl)
• Russian: мра́чный (ru) (mráčnyj)
• Spanish: lúgubre (es), taciturno (es), melancólico (es)
• Ukrainian: понурий m (ponuryj), похмурий m (poxmuryj)

Anagrams

• doru, ordu

Breton

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Brythonic *duβr, from Proto-Celtic *dubros, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰubʰrós (“deep”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈduːr/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

dour m (plural dourioù or doureier)

1. water
2. (by extension) rain, tears, sweat, saliva

Derived terms

• dourek

Mutation

  Mutation of dour  

Breton consonant mutation
	unmutated	soft	aspirate	hard
singular	dour	zour	unchanged	tour
plural	doureier	zoureier	unchanged	toureier

Champenois

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /dur/

Noun

dour (m)

1. Alternative form of jou

Scots

Etymology

Derived from Middle Irish dúr, from Latin dūrus (“hard”).

Adjective

dour

1. stern, severe, relentless, dour

Descendants

• → English: dour

References

• “dour” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.