acerbity means sourness of taste, with bitterness and astringency, like that of unripe fruit. It carries an Arena rating of 1796, earned across 83 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, acerbity ranks #2,015 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #2,926 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,235 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #3,911 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
acerbity is pronounced /əˈsɜːbɪti/.
Why “acerbity” is a great word
ACERBITY — [Noun] A sharp, bitter, or sour quality, whether of taste, tone, or character. From Middle French acerbité, from Latin acerbitās ("harshness, bitterness"), from acerbus ("bitter, sour, harsh"). Unlike "asperity," which implies a rough severity of temper, or "acrimony," which denotes bitter animosity in feeling, acerbity is the clean, biting sting of a substance or a sentiment. It is the tannic grip of an unripe persimmon, the precise and devastating wit of a critic's dismissal, and the brittle, unforgiving light of a winter afternoon—a sharpness that clarifies, even as it wounds, leaving a residue on the tongue and in the air long after its source has passed.
Etymology
Borrowed from French acerbité, from Latin acerbitās (“acerbity; harshness”), from acerbus (“bitter”). See acerb.
noun
- Sourness of taste, with bitterness and astringency, like that of unripe fruit.
- Harshness, bitterness, or severity.e.g.“acerbity of temper, of language, of pain”
- Something harsh (e.g. a remark, act or experience).e.g.“[…] 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;” — 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 16, in Mary Barton, volume 2, London: Chapman and Hall, page 222:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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