surly

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sirly (“lordly, imperious”), respelled surly in the 16th century,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} formed from English sir + -ly,^{[2][8][9][3][10]} on the pattern of lordly and kingly.^[11] The base here means a lord,^[8][4] and is itself a variant of sire used in unstressed position,^[3][9] from Old French sire (“lord”), from Latin senior (“older, elder”).^[3][9] Etymonline, Klein and Weekley compare German herrisch (“domineering, imperious”), from Herr (“master, lord”).^[3][6][11] Johnson and Skeat instead connected the word with sour,^[12][13] which the later dictionaries do not follow.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

As sirly, lordly, haughty, imperious: before 1375, in William of Palerne.^[2][4] With the spelling surly, the OED's first record is Drant's translation of Horace (1566), for "lordly, majestic", a sense it marks as rare and doubtful,^[2][4] and Etymonline dates it to the 1570s.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged's first date is about 1572, for the sense "arrogant".^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant behaving like a lord.^[14][3] From about 1572 to 1726 it meant imperious or supercilious,^[2][10] and Weekley finds only this sense in Shakespeare,^[11] also as an adverb, in the lion that "went surly by" in Julius Caesar.^[5][10] From haughtiness it moved to the sense in use today, rude and bad-tempered.^[2][14] The OED and Barnhart date this to 1670, in Ray's Collection of English Proverbs,^[2][4] Etymonline to the 1660s,^[3] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins and the Shorter Oxford to the late 16th century.^[14][5] Johnson (1755), who defined it as "gloomily morose; rough; uncivil; sour; silently angry".^[12] From 1609, in Shakespeare's Sonnets, it was extended to things: stern and rough at first, then intractable of soil, and rough and threatening of weather.^[2][5] In Scots it could mean rough, boisterous or stormy.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1375 – as sirly, lordly, haughty (obsolete by 1648).^[2][4]
• 1566 – spelled surly, lordly, majestic (obsolete).^[2][4]
• c. 1572 – masterful, imperious, arrogant (obsolete by 1726).^[2][10]
• 1609 – figuratively, stern and rough; later of soil and weather.^[2]
• before 1616 – adverb, haughtily (obsolete by 1693).^[2]
• 1670 – ill-humoured, rude and cross.^[2][4]
• 1748 – as a noun, a kind of proper name for a surly person.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bad-tempered and rude; sullen, churlish: The surly clerk barely looked up from his desk.^[16][10][2]
2. Of an animal, ill-tempered or hard to control.^[16][10][2]
3. Of weather or surroundings, gloomy and threatening; dismal.^[16][10][5]
4. Of soil, difficult to work; intractable.^[10][2][5]
5. (obsolete, c. 1572–1726) Imperious, arrogant.^[10][2][16]

Adverb

1. (obsolete, before 1616–1693) In a haughty or imperious manner.^[10][2][5]

Word family

• surlily
• surliness
• unsurly

Related words

• sir
• sire
• senior

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins