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)

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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

• acidulously
• acidulousness
• nonacidulous
• subacidulous

 

Translations

slightly sour

• Bulgarian: възкисел (vǎzkisel)
• French: acidulé (fr) m, acidulée (fr) f
• Galician: acídulo (gl)
• German: säuerlich (de)
• Latin: acidulus
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: syrlig (no)

  Nynorsk: syrleg

• Ottoman Turkish: مایخوش (mayhoş)
• Portuguese: acídulo (pt)