asperity

American  

[uh-sper-i-tee] / əˈspɛr ɪ ti /

noun

plural

asperities

1. harshness or sharpness of tone, temper, or manner; severity; acrimony.

   The cause of her anger did not warrant such asperity.

   Synonyms:

   astringency, bitterness, acerbity

   Antonyms:

   cheerfulness, affability

2. hardship; difficulty; rigor.

   the asperities of polar weather.

3. roughness of surface; unevenness.

4. something rough or harsh.

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asperity British  

/ æˈspɛrɪtɪ /

noun

1. roughness or sharpness of temper

2. roughness or harshness of a surface, sound, taste, etc

3. a condition hard to endure; affliction

4. physics the elastically compressed region of contact between two surfaces caused by the normal force

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Etymology

Origin of asperity

1200–50; late Middle English asperite (< Anglo-French ) < Latin asperitās, equivalent to asper rough + -itās -ity; replacing Middle English asprete < Anglo-French, Old French < Latin

Explanation

Asperity is the harsh tone or behavior people exhibit when they’re angry, impatient, or just miserable. Did your supervisor snap “Late again!” when you showed up 20 minutes after your shift was supposed to start? She's speaking with asperity. The harshness that asperity implies can also apply to conditions, like "the asperities of life in a bomb shelter." The word can be used even more literally to refer to surfaces, as in "the asperity of an unfinished edge." But, most often, you will see asperity used in reference to grumpy voices or irritable behavior.

Example Sentences

On a re-read, Orwell’s narrative holds up, in large part due to the asperity of the prose and the prescient description of how fascism can creep into any society that takes freedom for granted.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2023

Arch, cracking with energetic, even contemptuous asperity, it is a world apart from “Everybody.”

From Washington Post • Jun. 17, 2021

Perhaps it doesn’t have the lightness and waspish asperity that we prize in a Smith performance, but this is fine work.

From The Guardian • Sep. 5, 2019

I wanted to tell her something about her beauty and asperity, about watching her catch the lightning in her hands onstage, but she would have yelled at me and told me to stop being sentimental.

From New York Times • Mar. 27, 2019

“Now where,” he answered with asperity, “where except in the great tea shop on the main street of the town?”

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck