sullen means having a brooding ill temper; sulky.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sullen ranks #143 of 25,264 for Qualifying, #2,308 of 14,431 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,382 of 14,414 for Most Elegant Words, #2,580 of 14,456 for The Improbable.
sullen is pronounced /ˈsʌlən/.
Why “sullen” is a great word
A gloomily or resentfully silent, morose, and ill-humored state of mind. From Middle English *solein* ("solitary, unique"), from Anglo-Norman *soleyn* ("alone"), from Old French *sole* ("single, alone"), from Latin *sōlus* ("alone, by oneself"). The semantic shift from "solitary" to "morose" occurred in Middle English. Unlike "morose," which implies a habitual, deep-seated gloom, or "sulky," which suggests a petulant, childish pout, "sullen" is a brooding, communicative silence. It is the teenager slumped at the kitchen table, jaw clenched and eyes down; the oppressive quiet of a neglected dinner table; the specific density of air just before a storm breaks—a loneliness that has curdled into hostility, the solitude that no longer wants company.
Etymology
From Middle English soleyn, from Anglo-Norman soleyn (“alone”), from Old French sole (“single, sole, alone”), from Latin sōlus (“by oneself alone”). The change in meaning from "single" to morose occurred in Middle English.
adj
- Having a brooding ill temper; sulky.“Still she entreats, and prettily entreats, / For to a pretty ear she tunes her tale; / Still is he sullen, still he lours and frets, / ‘Twixt crimson shame and anger ashy-pale;”
- Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.“a sullen atmosphere”
- Sluggish; slow.“The larger [stream] was placid, and even sullen, in its course.”
- Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.“Such sullen planets at my birth did shine, / They threaten every Fortune mixt with mine.”
- Obstinate; intractable.“Things are as sullen as we are, and will be what they are whatever we think of them.”
noun
- One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.“He sit neither with seint Johan, / Symond ne Jude, / Ne with maydenes ne with martires, / Confessours ne wydewes; / But by hymself as a soleyn, / And served on erthe.”
- Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness.“And let them die that age and sullens have;”
verb
- To make sullen.“The idle man is like the dumb jack in a virginal: while all the other dance out a winning music, this, like a member out of joint, sullens the whole body, with an ill disturbing laziness.”
Words closest in meaning
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