Why “churlishness” is a great word
CHURLISHNESS — [Noun] The quality or state of being rude, surly, and mean-spirited. From Middle English *churlischnesse*, from Old English *ċeorlisċnes*, from *ċeorl* ("a free man of the lowest rank, peasant, churl") + *-isċ* (adjective-forming suffix) + *-nes* (noun-forming suffix). Unlike "boorishness," which implies a clumsy, uncultured rudeness, or "curtness," which may be merely brusque efficiency, churlishness is an active, petty ill-will. It is the barman who wipes the counter just after you lean on it, the neighbor who returns a borrowed tool with a complaint about its edge, the scornful laugh at a vulnerable confession—a small, cold fortress of the self, built from the rubble of imagined slights.