English → Latin
“sour” in Latin
acerbusharsh, bitter, unripe, sour, premature, not yet marriageable; sharp, severe, bitter (i.e., extremely painful); rough, viamārusbitter (taste); harsh, shrill (sound); sarcastic (speech)acidussour, tart, acid, bitter; harsh, grating, rough, shrill; disagreeable, unpleasant; sharp, keen, pungent; sharp-tonguedācersharp, sour, bitter, pungent; keen, sharp, acute, sagacious; energetic, active, vigorousdifficilisdifficult, hard, troublesome; obstinate, intractable, hard to please or managemōrōsuscaptious, persnickety, fastidious, difficult (to please); peevish, wayward, capricioustrīstissad, unhappy, melancholy, morose; sorrowful, mournful; disagreeable, harsh, bitter (of taste)peracerbusvery harsh, bitter, sour; very painfulperācervery sharpacēscōto become sour, to turn sour
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
sour adj.
Not sweet, acerbus (opposed to mitis): amarus (opposed to dulcis: according to Döderlein, acerbus of a biting, amarus of a nauseous, bitterness: acerbus is far more commonly used, figuratively, of sour in words, character, etc.): acidus (opposed to dulcis; Vid: to taste or smell): acer (sharp). (The words are found in this connection and order.) acer acidusque. Somewhat sour, acidulus, subacidus. Very sour, acidissimus: peracerbus: acerbissimus: peracer: acerrimus (☞ malum acidum an apple sour, though ripe; malum acerbum, an apple sour, because unripe). To be sour, acere; acidum or acerbum, or acrem esse; gustatu acido or acri esse sapore. To be turning sour, acescere, coacescere: sour milk, lac acidum (Plin.): very sour vinegar, acetum acidissimum (Plin.). A sour grape, uva acerba (☞ not austera).
Cross, ill-tempered, difficilis: morosus: tristis: sour looks, vultus acerbi (Ov.), severi (Mart.). To put on a sour look, acerbos sumere vultus (Ov.); severos ducere vultus (Mart.); frontem contrahere (Cic.); frontem attrahere, adducere (Sen.). To make sour, acidum facere.
sour v.
Transitively, PROP., acidum facere.
Figuratively, aliquem exacerbare.
Intransitively, acescere: coacescere.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for sour?
- The usual Latin words for “sour” are acerbus, amārus, acidus; also ācer, difficilis, mōrōsus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.