dour

/ˈdaʊər/

/daʊə/

Other forms: dourest; dourer

Dour describes something sullen, gloomy, or persistent. You might look dour on your way to picking up your last check from the job you just got fired from, and people should get out of your way.

Dour and endure most likely come from the Latin word durus which means "hard." If something is hard to endure for a long enough time, it can make even the most happy-go-lucky person dour. Dour sounds like sour (or closer to "do-er"). It's a tomato/tamahto word, but either way — if you're in a sour mood, you have no sense of humor, and you're dour.

Definitions of dour

1. adjective

   showing a brooding ill humor
   “the proverbially dour New England Puritan”

   synonyms: dark, glowering, glum, moody, morose, saturnine, sour, sullen

   ill-natured

   having an irritable and unpleasant disposition
2. adjective

   stubbornly unyielding
   “dour determination”

   synonyms: dogged, persistent, pertinacious, tenacious, unyielding

   obstinate, stubborn, unregenerate

   tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield
3. adjective

   harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance
   “a dour, self-sacrificing life”

   synonyms: forbidding, grim

   unpleasant

   disagreeable to the senses, to the mind, or feelings