'Sour of Temper; Peevish; Sullen'

Jules Renard writes in his journal on July 26, 1899: “More than once I have tried being morose for a whole day. I have not succeeded. Not even that!” Renard enjoys presenting himself as a nebbish, a bungler who fails at everything. It’s a useful persona that induces sympathy in the reader and mutes egotism, permitting him to announce his buoyancy of personality while not overtly bragging. 

Dr. Johnson defines morose as “sour of temper; peevish; sullen.” In my personal lexicon, the word connotes a largely self-adopted behavior, a strategy for dealing with life, especially other people, rather than a philosophical stance or a deeper matter of temperament. In his novel Christopher Homm (1965), C.H. Sisson writes: “Even to Dad Christopher's courtship was of some use, as an exercise for morosity.” We can all think of the morose types we’ve known resembling Homm’s father. They seem not so much depressed as defensively carrying a shield of cynicism. In small doses, with a little wit and a minimum of bitterness, morosity can be amusing.

 

I knew a guy in high school who seldom spoke but you wouldn’t call him quiet. When he did speak, you expected him to say something dismissive of the faint possibility that something in the world might please him. He didn’t seem depressed, exactly, but distant, inhabiting an interior realm. Last year I saw him again at our fifty-fifth high-school reunion. He was standing by himself so I approached, shook his hand and started a conversation. He was the same guy with the same personality. He seemed surprised I remembered his name. I learned he was a lawyer, had never married and little else. I stuck around, even though it was work, marveling at the continuity of personality across more than half a century.   

 

The OED offer a secondary definition of morose, used in theology: “of a thought or feeling: wrongly or sinfully prolonged or dwelt upon. Now rare.”

 

[The Renard quote come from Journal 1887-1910 (trans. Theo Cuffe, selected and introduced by Julian Barnes, riverrun, 2020).]