Soured

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. To have experienced a shift from sweetness to a more acidic or bitter state
2. Turned from pleasant to harsh or acrid in taste or odor ; changed from a positive to a negative sentiment or mood
3. Developed an off-putting or sharp flavor or scent ; underwent a deterioration in relations or emotions

Etymology: "Soured" is the past tense and past participle of "sour," so the real story belongs to the root. Its ancestor reaches back to a Proto-Indo-European form, *súHros, meaning "sour," and the same root traveled through the Germanic languages into Old English as "sūr." English has kept the sense of sharp, acidic taste for well over a thousand years. The most surprising link is with cheese. Across the Slavic languages, the words for "cheese" and "raw" descend from the same root as "sour": Polish "ser," Czech "sýr," and Russian "сырой" (syroj, "raw"). Old Church Slavonic "сꙑръ" (syrŭ) even meant "moist, cheese." Cheese and raw foods were long grouped under the idea of something moist and unprocessed, while the Germanic branch followed the sense of sharp, tangy taste instead. Cognates in West Frisian, Dutch "zuur," German "sauer," Swedish "sur," and Icelandic "súr" all keep the original sense of sour, showing that the word's core meaning has barely shifted across its long journey.

Synonyms: bittered, tainted, spoiled

Antonyms: sweetened, freshened