sour
/ˈsaʊ.ɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.88 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Made rancid by fermentation, etc.
adj
Hostile or unfriendly.
adj
Excessively acidic and thus infertile. (of soil)
adj
Containing excess sulfur. (of petroleum)
adj
adj
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: sour, sūr, *sūr, *sūraz, *súHros
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsaʊ.ɚ/
- British English: /ˈsaʊ.ə/