asperity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English asprete,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French aspreté,^[4][5][2] formed from aspre (“rough”) and the suffix -té,^[5] from Latin asperitās (“roughness”),^[4][6][7] from asper (“rough, harsh”), of unknown origin.^[7][6][8] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the early 13th century, for roughness, harshness, violence and pain.^[9] The English word was later remodelled on the Latin, partly through Middle French asperité;^[4][5][10] Barnhart dates the form asperity to before 1535, in Thomas More.^[6] Modern French has âpreté.^[4][7] The Latin adjective was also used of sour wine, bad weather and hard times.^[7] Weekley derived it from ab and spernō (“to reject”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Harshness, rigour, hardship: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle, where asprete renders Latin asperitas, paired with vilte, vileness, as the two uprights of a ladder reaching up to heaven.^[4][2] Barnhart dates the word to before 1200.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was figurative, harshness to the feelings, or hardship, as in Old French.^[4][7] The literal sense, roughness of a surface, is recorded in the 15th century, in a medical text of about 1425^[2][7] and, in the OED, from before 1492 in Caxton.^[4] In the 17th century the word was extended to a sharp taste (1620) and a harsh sound (1664),^[4] and in 1664, in Henry More, to harshness of temper or manner, the main sense today;^[4][7] later uses were bitter cold (1750) and roughness of literary style (1779), both in Johnson.^[4] Johnson's dictionary (1755) gave unevenness of surface as the first sense, then roughness of sound.^[11] In physics the word now names a point of contact between two surfaces.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – hardship, rigour, severity, as asprete.^[4][2]
• c. 1425 – harshness, roughness.^[2]
• before 1492 – roughness of surface; in the plural, rough points.^[4]
• before 1535 – the form asperity.^[6]
• 1620 – sharpness of taste.^[4]
• 1664 – harshness of sound; harshness of temper or manner.^[4]
• 1750 – bitter coldness.^[4]
• 1779 – roughness of literary style.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Harshness or sharpness of temper or manner: She answered with some asperity.^[12][5][4]
2. Roughness or unevenness of a surface; in the plural, rough points or projections.^[12][5][4]
3. A hard or severe condition; hardship, rigour.^[12][5][4]
4. Harshness of sound.^[12][5][4]
5. (physics) The compressed region where two surfaces touch.^[12]
6. (archaic) Sourness or sharpness of taste.^[4][5]

Related words

• exasperate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins