acidulous

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin acidulus (“sourish, acidulous”), diminutive of acidus (“sour, acid”). See acid.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /əˈsɪdjʊləs/, /əˈsɪd͡ʒələs/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)

Adjective

acidulous

  1. 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
  2. (figurative) Sharp; caustic.
    • 1931, William Somerset Maugham, His Excellency:
      He talked with acidulous tolerance of the exalted personages who had sent Ashenden to X.
  3. Containing carbonic acid.
    acidulous mineral waters

Derived terms

Translations
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