sombre
See also: sombré
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French sombre (“dark”), from Old French sombre, from a verb *sombrer or Latin sub- + umbra. Compare Spanish sombra (“shade; dark part of a picture; ghost”).[1][2]
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsɒmbə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈsɑmbɚ/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɒmbə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: som‧bre
Adjective
[edit]sombre (comparative sombrer, superlative sombrest) (British spelling, Canadian spelling)
- Dark; gloomy; shadowy, dimly lit.
- Synonyms: bleak, dreary; see also Thesaurus:cheerless
- 2015, Hermann Kauders, Before The Cock Crows, →ISBN, page 9:
- The lady led him into a sombre hallway and disappeared. A moment later the windowless chamber was illuminated by the entry of a heavenly creature emitting a radiance prone to pierce the heart of any youth exposed to it.
- Dull or dark in colour or brightness.
- Synonyms: fuscous, inky; see also Thesaurus:dark, Thesaurus:dark colour
- 1877, The Black Band; or, The Mysteries of Midnight, page 47:
- His tall and slender figure, dressed in sombre black, his hair of that peculiar reddish auburn so rarely seen, his flashing black eyes, in which a fitful fire seemed for ever burning; all combined to give something almost of a demoniac air ...
- Melancholic, gloomy, dreary, dismal; grim.
- Synonyms: despondent, unhappy; see also Thesaurus:sad
- 1845, B[enjamin] Disraeli, Sybil; or The Two Nations. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
- The dinner was silent and sombre; happily it was also short.
- 1904 January 29 – October 7, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard, London, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], published 1904, →OCLC:
- It was a wonder that he had not been a victim of the ferocious and summary executions which marked the course of that tyranny; for Guzman had ruled the country with the sombre imbecility of political fanaticism.
- 2012, Peter Turnbull, Aftermath, Severn House Publishers Ltd, →ISBN:
- A sombre mood, very sombre in fact, thought Hennessey, as he stood against the wall observing the procedure for the police. He had not known a mood more sombre to have previously descended on the room.
- Grave; extremely serious.
- Synonyms: earnest, staid; see also Thesaurus:serious
- a sombre situation
Alternative forms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]dark; gloomy, dimly lit
|
dull or dark in colour
|
melancholy; dismal
|
grave
Noun
[edit]sombre (uncountable)
Verb
[edit]sombre (third-person singular simple present sombres, present participle sombring, simple past and past participle sombred)
- To make sombre or dark; to make shady.
References
[edit]- ^ “sombre”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “sombre”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- “sombre”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams
[edit]French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Inherited from Old French sombre, likely from Latin sub umbra (“in/under the shade”); compare Spanish and Portuguese sombra (“shade, shadow”). Possibly derived through a verb *sombrer, from a Vulgar Latin *subumbrāre (“to shade, enshadow”), though this does not seem necessary. Compare also Old French essombre, with a different prefix.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]sombre (plural sombres)
- dark
- (derogatory) right, damn, bloody
- un sombre crétin ― a prize idiot, a complete idiot, an unspeakable imbecile
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- → English: sombre
Verb
[edit]sombre
- inflection of sombrer:
Further reading
[edit]- “sombre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
[edit]Norman
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old French sombre, from a verb *sombrer (from a Vulgar Latin *subumbrāre), or from Latin sub (“under”) + umbra (“shadow”).
Adjective
[edit]sombre m or f
Spanish
[edit]Verb
[edit]sombre
- inflection of sombrar:
Categories:
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- Rhymes:English/ɒmbə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɒmbə(ɹ)/2 syllables
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