Surly vs Brutish - What's the difference?
surly | brutish |
(obsolete) Lordly, arrogant, supercilious.
Irritated, bad-tempered, unfriendly.
Threatening, menacing, gloomy.
(obsolete) In an arrogant or supercilious manner.
* 1623 , , Julius Caesar , I.iii,
As adjectives the difference between surly and brutish
is that surly is (obsolete) lordly, arrogant, supercilious while brutish is of, or in the manner of a brute.As an adverb surly
is (obsolete) in an arrogant or supercilious manner.surly
English
Adjective
(er)- The surly weather put us all in a bad mood.
Adverb
(er)- Against the Capitol I met a lion / Who glazed upon me, and went surly
brutish
English
Quotations
* 1651 , (Thomas Hobbes), *: No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish , and short. * 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 3, ch. IX, ''Working Aristocracy *: The haggard despair of Cotton-factory, Coal-mine operatives, Farm-labourers, in these days, is painful to behold; but not so painful, hideous to the inner sense, as the brutish god-forgetting Profit-and-Loss Philosophy, and Life-theory, which we hear jangled on all hands of us […] * {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty , date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist)citation, passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
