lower
Storm clouds that lower lower the spirits of every sailor in the harbor.
The first 'lower' is a rare verb pronounced /ˈlaʊər/ (rhyming with 'flower'): of sky or weather, to look dark and threatening; of a person, to frown or scowl. The second is the everyday verb pronounced /ˈloʊər/ (rhyming with 'slower'): to bring something down or reduce it. Both are verbs, so the doubled word does not mark a switch from noun to verb; the reader has to notice that the first sits in a relative clause describing the clouds while the second carries the whole sentence's action, and the late re-pronunciation lands like the sinking feeling the sentence describes.
Meanings
Of the sky, clouds, or weather: to look dark, heavy, and threatening, as if a storm is about to break. Of a person: to frown, scowl, or look sullen. Also spelled 'lour'.
- The sky had begun to lower long before the first drops fell.
- He sat in the corner and lowered at anyone who laughed.
To move something down to a lower position, or to reduce something in amount, degree, intensity, or value.
- Lower the lifeboat slowly so it doesn't swing.
- The bank will lower its rates next month.
Word origin
The frowning verb comes from Middle English 'louren' or 'lowren' (to frown, scowl, lurk), probably akin to Middle Dutch 'loeren' (to lie in wait, peer) and German 'lauern' (to lurk); 'lour' is the older spelling, and 'lower' arose by confusion with the commoner word. The reducing verb was built in the 1600s from the comparative adjective 'lower', i.e. 'low' plus '-er', and 'low' itself comes from Old Norse 'lágr'. The two have no shared ancestor; they merely converged on one spelling.
Fun fact
The opening lines of Shakespeare's Richard III speak of 'all the clouds that lour'd upon our house', and modern editions often print the verb as 'lowered'. Phrases like 'a lowering sky' are therefore ambiguous in print: read /ˈloʊ/ it is a sky sinking toward the ground, read /ˈlaʊ/ it is a sky scowling. Both readings fit a storm well enough that many readers never notice which one the writer meant.