sulk

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To express ill humor or offence by remaining sullenly silent or withdrawn.
noun
  1. A state of sulking.
  2. A fit of sulking; a sulking mood.
  3. A person who sulks
noun
  1. A furrow.

Pronunciation

/sʌlk/ en-us-sulk.ogg /sʊlk/

Word forms

sulk sulks sulking sulked

Etymology

Back-formation from sulky, of uncertain origin. Probably from Middle English *sulke, *solke (attested in solcenesse (“idleness; laziness”), from Old English āsolcennys (“idleness; slothfulness; sluggishness; laziness”), from āsolcen (“sulky, languid”), from past participle of Old English āseolcan (“be slow; be weak or slothful; languish”), from Proto-Germanic *selkaną (“to fall in drops; dribble; droop”), from Proto-Indo-European *sélǵ-o-nom, from *selǵ- (“to let go, send”). Cognate with several Indo-Iranian words deriving from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sarȷ́- (such as Sanskrit सृजति (sṛjáti), सर्जन (sárjana), सृक (sṛká)), possibly Hittite 𒊭𒀠𒀝𒍣 (ša-al-ak-zi /⁠šalkzi⁠/, “knead, mix”), although the semantic connection is weak.

Synonyms

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.