sombre

• somber (US)

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]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɒmbə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɑmbɚ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsɒmbəɹ/, [sɔ̃ː.bɹ(ə)]

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɒmbə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: som‧bre

sombre (comparative sombrer, superlative sombrest) (British spelling, Canadian spelling)

1. 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.

   • 1955 July, D. S. Barrie, “Railways of the Bridgend District”, in Railway Magazine, page 449:

     All three parallel valleys of the Llynvi, Garw and Ogmore are much the same in physical character: the lower reaches are wooded and not unattractive, but as the railway climbs on ever-steepening grades, the hills on either hand grow barer and closer together, while in all respects the scene becomes more sombre, with the terraced, slate-roofed colliery towns and the road, railway and river all struggling for space in the narrowing defiles.

2. 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 ...

3. 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.

4. Grave; extremely serious.

   Synonyms: earnest, staid; see also Thesaurus:serious

   a sombre situation

• somber (US)

• sombre rock chat
• sombre tit/somber tit
• sombrish
• sombrely
• sombresome

sombre (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Gloom; obscurity; duskiness.

sombre (third-person singular simple present sombres, present participle sombring, simple past and past participle sombred)

1. To make sombre or dark; to make shady.

• “sombre”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Bomers, bromes, ombres, somber

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.

• (France) IPA^(key): /sɔ̃bʁ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /sõːbʀ/

• Audio:

  (file)

sombre (plural sombres)

1. dark

   Synonyms: foncé, obscur

   Antonym: clair

2. (derogatory) right, damn, bloody

   un sombre crétin ― a prize idiot, a complete idiot, an unspeakable imbecile

• coupe sombre
• matière sombre

• ombre

• → English: sombre

sombre

1. inflection of sombrer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “sombre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• ombres

From Old French sombre, from a verb *sombrer (from a Vulgar Latin *subumbrāre), or from Latin sub (“under”) + umbra (“shadow”).

sombre m or f

1. (Jersey) sombre, dark

sombre

1. inflection of sombrar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative