sullen

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   badtempered and sulky; gloomy in mood or appearance

   The boy sat in sullen silence through the entire meal.

Simplified etymology

Sullen comes from Old French sulein, from sol, meaning “sole” or “alone,” and ultimately from Latin solus, “alone.” Its early senses included “single,” “solitary,” and “unusual”; the association of solitude with unsociability led to the later meaning “silently gloomy or resentful.”

From Middle English solein ('solitary, sole, averse to company'), from Anglo-Norman *solein, from Vulgar Latin *sōlānus, from Latin sōlus ('alone'); the sense shifted from 'solitary' to 'gloomy'.

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