Sýrður

Sýrður is an Icelandic adjective meaning “sour” or “acidic.” It is commonly used to describe the taste or chemical character of substances, especially foods and drinks that have become acidified or fermented. In Icelandic culinary vocabulary it appears in familiar terms such as súrmjólk, the sour milk/yogurt drink, and sýrður rjómi, sour cream, where the word helps convey the sour quality of the product.

Etymology and related forms trace sýrður to the verb sýra, “to sour,” which itself comes from Old Norse sýra and is related to cognate terms in other Germanic languages. The adjective is part of a productive pattern in Icelandic whereby verbs of a processes like souring yield adjectives describing the resulting state.

Grammar and usage notes: sýrður is an inflecting adjective and must agree with the noun it modifies in gender and number. It can be used attributively (before or after the noun in compounds, depending on emphasis and definiteness) or predicatively after a linking verb. In everyday language, it retains a straightforward sense of sourness tied to taste or acidity, but it can also be employed metaphorically to describe a sour mood or atmosphere.

See also: súr (shorter form meaning sour in some contexts), súrmjólk (sour milk), sýrður rjómi (sour cream). The term is one of several Icelandic words for describing taste and acidity, reflecting a broader linguistic pattern of flavor and chemical state.