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alacrity | əˈlakrədē |
noun
brisk and cheerful readiness: she accepted the invitation with alacrity.
brisk | brisk |
adjective
active, fast, and energetic: a good brisk walk | business appeared to be brisk.
• sharp or abrupt: the brisk, dismissive nod of her head.
• (of the weather or wind) cold but fresh and enlivening: the sea was shimmering and heaving beneath the brisk breeze.
DERIVATIVES
briskness | ˈbrisknəs | noun
ORIGIN
late 16th century: probably from French brusque (see brusque).
brusque | brəsk |
adjective
abrupt or offhand in speech or manner: she could be brusque and impatient.
DERIVATIVES
brusquely | ˈbrəsklē | adverb
brusqueness | ˈbrəsknəs | noun
ORIGIN
mid 17th century: from French, ‘lively, fierce’, from Italian brusco ‘sour’.
sour | ˈsouər |
adjective
1 having an acid taste like lemon or vinegar: she sampled the wine and found it was sour.
• (of food, especially milk) spoiled because of fermentation: the kitchen smelled of sour milk.
• having a rancid smell: her breath was always sour.
2 feeling or expressing resentment, disappointment, or anger: she was quite a different woman from the sour, bored creature I had known.
3 (of soil) deficient in lime and usually dank.
4 (of petroleum or natural gas) containing a relatively high sulfur content.
noun [with modifier]
a drink made by mixing an alcoholic beverage with lemon juice or lime juice: a rum sour.
verb
make or become sour: [with object] : water soured with tamarind | [no object] : a bowl of milk was souring in the sun.
• make or become unpleasant, acrimonious, or difficult: [with object] : a dispute soured relations between the two countries for over a year | [no object] : many friendships have soured over borrowed money.
PHRASES
turn sour (also go sour)
become less pleasant or attractive; turn out badly: the case concerns a property deal that turned sour.
sour grapes
| ˌsour ˈɡrāps | used to refer to an attitude in which someone adopts a negative attitude to something because they cannot have it themselves: government officials dismissed many of the complaints as sour grapes.
[with allusion to Aesop's fable The Fox and the Grapes]
DERIVATIVES
sourish | ˈsouəriSH | adjective
sourly | ˈsouərlē | adverb
sourness | ˈsouərnəs | noun
ORIGIN
Old English sūr, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zuur and Germansauer
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late Middle English: from Latin alacritas, from alacer ‘brisk’.