sordid

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Latin sordēs Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Italic *-ēō Latin -eō Latin sordeō Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der. Proto-Italic *-iðos Latin -idus Latin sordidusder. Middle English sordid ▲ Latin sordiduslbor. French sordideder. English sordid From Middle English sordide, from Latin sordidus. Alternatively from French sordide.

1. Distasteful, ignoble, vile, or contemptible.

   “The more hopelessly sordid and insensible he appeared, the greater became Mrs. Shelby's dread of his succeeding in recapturing Eliza and her child, and of course the greater her motive for detaining him by every female artifice.”

2. Dirty or squalid.
3. Morally degrading.

   “He rode slowly home along the deserted road, watching the stars come out in the clear violet sky. They flashed softly into the limpid heavens, like jewels let fall into clear water. They were a reproach, he felt, to a sordid world.”

   “I know it sounds sordid but you'll be rewarded, when at last I've been given my dues.”

4. Grasping; stingy; avaricious.
5. Of a dull colour.

   “Leaves sordid-tomentulose beneath”