sordid
pronunciation
How to pronounce sordid in British English:
UK [ˈsɔ:dɪd]
How to pronounce sordid in American English:
US [ˈsɔrdɪd]
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- Adjective:
- morally degraded
- unethical or dishonest
- foul and run-down and repulsive
- meanly avaricious and mercenary
Word Origin
- sordid (adj.)
- early 15c., "festering," from Latin sordidus "dirty, filthy, foul, vile, mean, base," from sordere "be dirty, be shabby," related to sordes "dirt, filth," from PIE *swrd-e-, from root *swordo- "black, dirty" (cognates: Old English sweart "black"). Sense of "foul, low, mean" first recorded 1610s. Related: Sordidly; sordidness.
Example
- 1. But increasingly these arrangements seem neither efficient nor secret , as their sordid inner workings are laid bare .
- 2. Celebrities are easy targets for sordid tales .
- 3. As their populations age and their relative economic weight declines , europeans may need a similar change in attitude towards the sordid business of earning a national living .
- 4. But while the former portuguese colony has its sordid corners , it lacks the glossy party atmosphere of its american peer .
- 5. Even now , brazilians are reluctant to admit the sordid origins of the phenomenon and the elements of sexual and class exploitation it involved .