dour means stern, harsh and forbidding. It carries an Arena rating of 1546, earned across 15 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, dour ranks #111 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #326 of 42,762 for Qualifying, #2,410 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,535 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
dour is pronounced /ˈdʊə/.
Why “dour” is a great word
Marked by a stern, harsh, forbidding, or gloomy quality in manner or appearance. From Scots dour, possibly via Middle Irish dúr from Latin dūrus ("hard, stern"). Unlike "austere," which emphasizes severe, disciplined plainness, or "morose," which denotes a sullen, ill-tempered silence, "dour" describes an unsoftened and grim disposition. It is the set of a jaw that will not laugh, the grey granite face of a cliff in relentless weather, the particular gray of a northern sea that refuses all reflection of sky—the hard edge where resilience meets a profound refusal of grace.
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.
adj
- Stern, harsh and forbidding.e.g.“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.” — 1961 October, “Editorial: The importance of the "Roadrailer"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 577:
- Unyielding and obstinate.
- Expressing gloom or melancholy.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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