acerbic

Meanings

• adjective

  sharp, bitter, or caustic in taste or character

  - "The lemon juice was too acerbic for her taste."
  - "His acerbic wit made the room erupt in laughter."

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Synonyms

acrid , acrimonious , scathing , acerb , acrid , acrimonious

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Rhymes

Words rhyming with acerbic
pernicious , precocious , nicotine

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Variants

List of all variants of acerbic that leads to same result
acerbic , acerbically

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Etymology

origin and the way in which meanings have changed throughout history.

derived from the Latin word 'acer' meaning sharp or bitter

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Trivia

Any details, considerations, events or pieces of information regarding the word

1. The term 'acerbic' is often used in medical contexts to describe the acidity of stomach secretions.

2. In ancient Rome, acerbic vinegar was used as a preservative and a disinfectant.

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Related Concepts

informations on related concepts or terms closely associated with the word. Discuss semantic fields or domains that the word belongs to

1. bitter: A taste that is sharp and unpleasant, often described as pungent or astringent. Acerbic is a type of bitter.

2. sarcasm: A type of irony that is often bitter or caustic in tone. Acerbic wit is a form of sarcasm.

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Quotes

Quotes by authors and personalities

1. Whitney has graced magazine covers for her {it}acerbic{/it} and blunt evisceration of the banks she has covered. Several weeks ago, she left her well-paid post at Oppenheimer to start her own economic consultancy, where she will charge many of her employer's clients for her own unambiguous analysis.

   - Zachary Karabell,{it}Newsweek{/it},9 Mar. 2009

2. … we probably have no choice but to enjoy {it}Private Lives{/it} on its own terms—as a play that exults in its total lack of a public dimension. Coward's "acerbic" wit, his submerged sensibility, and his clipped semantics actually had a profound influence on the styles of virtually all the English dramatists who followed him …

   - Robert Brustein,{it}New Republic{/it},10 June 2002

3. … discovery of self-esteem and New Agey conclusions ("I discovered there was a goddess deep inside me") are something that an "acerbic" comedian like Cho shouldn't embrace without irony.

   - {it}Publishers Weekly{/it},7 May 2001

4. We want to experience how someone as "acerbic" as Jane Austen, as morally passionate as Dostoyevsky, as psychologically astute as Henry James makes sense of the chaos of this world.

   - Laura Miller,{it}New York Times Book Review{/it},15 Mar. 1998

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Culture

Any cultural, historical, or symbolic significance of the word. Explore how the word has been used in literature, art, music, or other forms of expression.

In literature, acerbic is often used to describe a witty or sarcastic person or character. In cooking, an acerbic sauce or dish is one that is sharp or bitter in taste.

How to Memorize "acerbic"

1. visualize
   

   - Imagine a lemon, which is both sharp in taste and bitter in flavor, to help remember the definition of acerbic.

2. associate
   

   - Associate the word acerbic with sharp and bitter things, such as a sharp tongue or a bitter pill.

3. mnemonics
   

   - Create a mnemonic by remembering the phrase 'Acerbic is sharp and bitter'.

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