the word 'surliness' is formed by adding the old english abstract noun suffix '-ness' to the adjective 'surly'. the journey of 'surly' itself is intriguing; it originated in the late 16th century as an alteration of the middle english 'sirly', meaning 'lordly, majestic', which derived from 'sir'. the semantic shift from 'like a sir' to 'arrogant, imperious, and eventually bad-tempered and unfriendly' reflects a critical view of aristocratic haughtiness. this evolution transformed a term denoting social status into one describing a disagreeable personality trait, which '-ness' then captures as the permanent state or quality.

Structure: surly (adjective) + ness (noun suffix) surly (from middle english sirly, surlich, of uncertain origin, possibly from middle english sir (lord) + -ly (like), implying the arrogant manner of a lord; functional role: adjective base). ness (from old english -nes, -nis, a suffix forming abstract nouns of state or quality; functional role: noun-forming suffix).