Glum means quietly gloomy and downcast. Not distraught — just flat, and showing it.
It is a mild and rather affectionate word, and it describes faces above all, so a glum expression and looking glum are the usual uses. It suits weather too. It is short and blunt, which is part of its charm, and it belongs to the same small family as gloomy and glumly. There is no verb. Its opposite is cheerful, and the difference between glum and miserable is entirely one of degree.
1adjectiveglumQuietly gloomy and dejected.
“He sat looking glum in the corner.”
Glum came in from Low German, where glumm meant gloomy, troubled or turbid. The turbid is the telling part: a glum mood is a cloudy one.
Middle Low German
glum — glum
English, today
glum
Built from
Probably from Middle Low German glum (“glum”), related to German - dialectal glumm (“gloomy, troubled, turbid”). More at gloomy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 25 of A Man Called Ove.
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