Think of an aristocrat, a lord with an elegant manor house, powerful social connections, habitual deference from those around him, and massive amounts of inherited money. Now picture his reaction when he discovers that his morning cappuccino, delivered to his bedside table with a square of dark chocolate a few minutes before his scheduled waking time, does not have the amount of foamy bubbles on top that he prefers. He’s paid for better service than this!
That’s what it feels like to be surly.
Surliness is an emotion of simmering outrage, leading a person to pout and mope, shout and stomp. It’s a feeling arises when the world fails to deliver what a person feels that they’re entitled to.
The word surly is derived from the word sir. It was coined to describe the way arrogant aristocrats behave when they are faced with obstacles that would be regarded by most people as insignificant. A surly person is so wrapped up in a sense of their own importance that they don’t think to consider their own troubles in the context of other people. A surly mood simply demands that its own pain be acknowledged and taken care of right away.
These days, a surly emotion is available to all. No aristocratic title is required. Arrogance has been democratized. All that’s needed to feel surly is an inflated sense of injury combined with an exaggerated sense of self-worth.
