surly

sullen, glum, morose, surly, sulky, crabbed, saturnine, gloomy mean showing a forbidding or disagreeable mood. sullen implies a silent ill humor and a refusal to be sociable <remained sullen amid the festivities>. glum suggests a silent dispiritedness <a glum candidate left to ponder a stunning defeat>. morose adds to glum an element of bitterness or misanthropy <morose job seekers who are inured to rejection>. surly implies gruffness and sullenness of speech or manner <a typical surly teenager>. sulky suggests childish resentment expressed in peevish sullenness <grew sulky after every spat>. crabbed applies to a forbidding morose harshness of manner <the school's notoriously crabbed headmaster>. saturnine describes a heavy forbidding aspect or suggests a bitter disposition <a saturnine cynic always finding fault>. gloomy implies a depression in mood making for seeming sullenness or glumness <a gloomy mood ushered in by bad news>.

To a noble person it might seem natural to link together high birth and good manners, but the word surly is evidence that other people have not always thought this way. In Middle English the word was spelled sirly, which made more obvious its derivation from sir, the traditional title of respect. Sirly had much the same meaning as lordly does today, that is, “proud, haughty.” Although its meaning has evolved to “rude” or “unfriendly,” surly still refers to a way of acting that is quite the opposite of good-mannered.