Adjective: acerbic
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
Perifrastic
| Comparative | more acerbic |
| Superlative | most acerbic |
Sample Sentences
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Those consumers who object to the acerbic taste of garlic can purchase de-odorized garlic or allicin extract. [1998 August 5, Dr. Peter Gott, “Can inhaler cause addiction?”, in Catoosa County News, retrieved 19 Sep 2009:]
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Supercompetent, superconfident and supercritical, Schmidt is a gifted orator whose acerbic wit earned him the nickname "Schmidt the Lip." [1986 September 22, “West Germany: Last Taunts From the Lip”, in TIME, archived from the original on 14 Feb 2021, retrieved 25 Apr 2014:]
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[H]e is one of the most acerbic people in his field, quick to take offense and not shy about telling people with whom he disagrees how much he thinks they have failed in thought and action. [2005 May 5, Jay Mathews, “Don't Fire This Professor”, in Washington Post, page T6:]
Adjectives inflected like acerbic
priest-ridden,
unreposed,
evadible,
dissentious,
dissentient,
unforesighted,
egocentrical,
unephemeral,
unennobling,
mensuralist,
flocculent,
unseductive,
whoopsy,
whooshy,
surrogate,
Nicodian,
unrepaired,
prismatoidal,
renorenal,
unseducible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ-
3. Proto-Indo-European *-rós
4. Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱrós
5. Proto-Italic *akris
6. Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-
7. Proto-Indo-European *-dʰh₁-os
8. Proto-Italic *-iðos
9. Proto-Italic *akriðos
10. Latin acerbusder.
11. English acerbic
12. Attested since the 17th century, from Latin acerbus (“sour, bitter”). See: Latin Adjectives '
acerbus'.