Etymograph

English

sour

Sour comes from Middle English sour ‘sour, acidic, bitter’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *súHros.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*súHrosreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sūrazreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sūr‘sour, acidic’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sūr
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sour‘sour, acidic, bitter’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*súHrosreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sūrazreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sūr‘sour, acidic’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sūr
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sour‘sour, acidic, bitter’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590same form

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto III: “For many Years of Sorrow can dispense; A Dram…”

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *sūraz

sorrel, 3 more

Today it means

adj Tasting of acidity.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *súHros / sour

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