Another anniversary! This year marks the 40th anniversary of my graduation from the University of Sheffield. I shall be at a dinner on Friday hosted by the Vice-Chancellor for some of us who graduated in politics. A fellow graduate who will be attending is David Blunkett. We variously get together in Westminster – we share the same views on the House of Lords and on citizenship education. I have yet to remind him, though, that he described me in his memoirs as a ‘dour Young Conservative’. Dour? Moi?
And another one
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Lord Norton,
SInce it emerges in more or less excusable fashion. I would like to know, do you always rhyme dour with pour or sometimes with sour?
Regardless, that is quite an achievement. Not merely graduating and staying alive for forty years, but rather it redounds to your glory that you are worth memorializing and feting.. Congratulations!
franksummers3ba: Many thanks. It’s an interesting question about how to pronounce ‘dour’. For me, it ryhmes with ‘pour’, but that may not be the common view.
The American Heritage Dictionary:
“Usage Note: The word dour, which is etymologically related to duress and endure, traditionally rhymes with tour. The variant pronunciation that rhymes with sour has been in use for a century or more, is widely used today, and is a standard variant. In our 1996 survey, 65 percent of the Usage Panel preferred the traditional pronunciation, and 33 percent preferred the variant.”
http://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=dour
Personally, I prefer it to rhyme with doer, as in somebody who achieves through hard work. Then, Mr Blunkett makes sense.
ladytizzy: Many thanks for that. I’m with you on this one.
Thank you Lady Tizzy…
You? Young?
Dean B: Very.