acerbity

Definition

Sourness of taste, with bitterness and astringency, like that of unripe fruit.

Etymology

Borrowed from French acerbité, from Latin acerbitās (“acerbity; harshness”), from acerbus (“bitter”). See acerb.

Example Sentences

• "acerbity of temper, of language, of pain"
• "“Well ?” I repeated with some acerbity. I had been wondering for the last ten minutes how many more knots he would manage to make in that same bit of string before he actually started undoing them again."
• "[…] the recollection of that yesterday […] made him bear with the meekness and patience of a true-hearted man all the worrying little acerbities of to-day;"