bitterness

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bitternesse,^[2][3] inherited from Old English biternes,^[2][4][5] formed from Old English biter (“bitter”) + -nes.^[2][6][7] Bitter goes back to Proto-Germanic *bitras-,^[7] which is formed from a zero-grade variant of the Germanic base of bite.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bitter taste or flavour: in the Old English Hexateuch, at Exodus 15:23, the OED's first quotation.^[6] The sense "bitterness of a herb" also occurs in Old English, in the phrase se swæc ðǽre bieternesse.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was figurative from the start: by the Old English period it meant harshness or unpleasantness felt in the mind, bitter feelings, deep sorrow or anguish, and, as a count noun, a thing that causes grief.^[6][7][4] In a gloss it renders Latin acerbitas, of punishments.^[4] The "anguish" sense is now obsolete, while "acrimony, resentment" has lasted.^[6] Etymonline dates "ill will, malice" to the mid-14th century, though the OED has bitter feelings already in Ælfric.^[6][7] About 1530 the word was extended to sharply cold wind and weather.^[6] Johnson (1755) listed a bitter taste, then "malice; grudge; hatred; implacability", then "sharpness; severity of temper".^[8] In Shetland dialect a bitterness was stormy weather.^[9]

Timeline

• Old English – bitter taste or flavour; figuratively, harshness or unpleasantness to the mind; bitter feelings; a thing that causes grief.^[6]
• c. 1530 – of cold, wind or weather, biting sharpness.^[6]
• 1898 – stormy weather, in Shetland dialect.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of tasting bitter; a bitter flavour: the bitterness of black coffee.^[6][2][8]
2. Feelings of resentment or animosity; acrimony: She spoke of the divorce with some bitterness.^[6][8]
3. The quality of being painful or hard to bear; harshness.^[6][2]
4. Something that causes grief or ill feeling; a bitter experience.^[6][2]
5. Of cold, wind or weather, biting sharpness: the bitterness of the north wind.^[6]

Related words

• bitter
• bite
• bit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)