acidulous
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Learned borrowing from Latin acidulus (“sourish, acidulous”), diminutive of acidus (“sour, acid”). See acid.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /əˈsɪdjʊləs/, /əˈsɪd͡ʒələs/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
[edit]acidulous
- Slightly sour; sub-acid; sourish.
- 1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension, […], 10th edition, London: […] J. Owen, […], and F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC:
- the hard, acidulous, metallic tincture of the spring
- (figurative) Sharp; caustic.
- 1931, William Somerset Maugham, His Excellency:
- He talked with acidulous tolerance of the exalted personages who had sent Ashenden to X.
- Containing carbonic acid.
- acidulous mineral waters