asperity

a•sper•i•ty (uh-SPER-i-tee)  n

Definition:
1. moral roughness; roughness of tone, temper or manner; severity;  harshness 
2. sharpness; disagreeableness; difficulty
3. roughness of surface; unevenness
4. roughness or harshness of sound; that quality which grates upon the ear; raucity
5. roughness to the taste; sourness; tartness

Origin:
early 13c., asprete "harshness of feelings," a figurative use, from O.Fr. asperete (12c., Mod.Fr. âpreté), from L. asperitatem (nom. asperitas) "roughness," from asper "rough, harsh," of unknown origin; in Latin used also of sour wine, bad weather, and hard times

Related:
Synonyms: harshness, acerbity, acrimony, bitterness, churlishness, crabbiness, crossness, difficulty, disagreeableness, irascibility, irritability, meanness, roughness, sharpness, sourness, tartness, astringency
Related Words: exasperate, asperate

Sentence Examples:
• A day or two after we reached St. Louis, I was walking along Fourth Street when a grizzly-headed man gave a sort of start as he passed me, then stopped, came back, inspected me narrowly, with a clouding brow, and finally said with deep asperity— 'Look here, HAVE YOU GOT THAT DRINK YET?' -Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain

• "The train of reasoning is not very obscure, Watson," said Holmes with a mischievous twinkle. "It belongs to the same elementary class of deduction which I should illustrate if I were to ask you who shared your cab in your drive this morning."
"I don't admit that a fresh illustration is an explanation," said I with some asperity.
-The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, Arthur Conan Doyle

• It was before the Gaelic movement, and before we had such things as “intellectuals” and the “economic man,” or even the Irish Literary Theatre. Leamy’s gentle and loyal soul could have taken no influence from the asperity of some of the intervening ferment, “Parliamentarian” though he was.  -Irish Fairy Tales, Edmond Leamy


Sources: HyperDictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

iracund

i•ra•cund (AHY-ruh-kuhnd)  adj

Definition:
easily angered, irascible

iracundity noun

Origin:
1815–25; Latin iracundus,  equivalent to ira- "anger" + -cundus  "inclined to"

Related:
Synonyms: irascible, choleric, angry, irritable
Related Words: irascible, irate, ire

Sentence Examples:
• That particular chancellor, whom the chronology of the case brought chiefly into connection with Miss Watson's interests, was (if my childish remembrances do not greatly mislead me) the iracund Lord Thurlow. -Memorials and Other Papers, Thomas de Quincey

• "I thought you were in it," replied the mayor, turning very red in the face, for he had heard of Mr. Pullwool as the leader of said ring; andbbeing an iracund man, he was ready to knock his head off. -An Inspired Lobbyist, J. W. DeForest

• Dryasdust knows only that these Preussen were a strong-boned, iracund herdsman-and-fisher people; highly averse to be interfered with, in their religion especially. -History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Thomas Carlyle

Sources: Free Dictionary, Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day