acidulous

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin acidulus (“sourish, acidulous”), diminutive of acidus (“sour, acid”). See acid. By surface analysis, acid +‎ -ule +‎ -ous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈsɪdjʊləs/, /əˈsɪd͡ʒələs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Adjective

acidulous

1. Slightly sour; subacid; 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, […], 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 (văzkisel)
• Finnish: happamahko
• French: acidulé (fr)
• Galician: acídulo (gl)
• German: säuerlich (de)
• Latin: acidulus
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: syrlig (no)

  Nynorsk: syrleg

• Portuguese: acídulo (pt)
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: مایخوش (mayhoş)