Whether you ’re enjoying the sharp taste of an IPA or dislike some nasty words from a fellow worker , it ’s hard not to talk about jaundice . But we could all utilize a few new — or previous — terms for this all - too - common concept . So allow ’s cut into into the story of English to find a few words set to trace barbs and rhubarbs .
1. STOMACHOUS
Have you ever spoken with gall and gall ? If so , you ’ll understand whystomachousis also a news describing gall , peculiarly acerb words and feelings . This is an angry word to describe spiteful tumultuous disturbance that follow when you ’ve had a bellyful of something . InThe Faerie Queen , Edmond Spencer used the terminus , describing those who , “ With sterne lookes , and stomachous disdaine , Gaue signes of grudge and discontentment vaine . " you could also say someone is “ stomachously angry , ” a layer of anger require a smattering of antacids .
2. WORMWOOD
Artemisia absinthium(wormwood ) is the patron plant of tartness , which has made wormwood synonymous with the concept . Since at least the 1500s , that has includedwormwoodbeing used as an adjective . Shakespeare used the term in this room : “ Thy mystic delight turnes to open up shame … Thy sugred natural language to bitter wormwood tast . ” George Parsons Lathrop reenforce this meaning in 1895 via the bitterness of rue , describing “ the wormwood memories of damage in the past . ” Unsurprisingly , some beer are brewed with wormwood to add bitter , like Storm Wormwood IPA .
3. BRINISH
The earliest uses ofbrinishare waterlogged , referring to saltiness of the ocean . The term then shifted to teardrop and then more oecumenical bitterness . Samuel Hieron used it in his 1620 bookWorks : “ These brinish inuectiues are vnsauory”[sic ] . Nothing can ruin your day quite like brinish vituperation .
4. CRABBED
Crabbyis a pop Book for climate that are , shall we say , not evocative of puppies and rainbows . Crabbedhas likewise been used to report citizenry in ways that are n’t blandish to the crabby person community . The Oxford English Dictionary ’s etymological note is amusing : “ The master reference work was to the stooping or wayward gait of the crustacean , and the contradictory , perverse , and fractious disposition which this expressed . ” This top to a kind of meanings running the gamut from perverse to combative to irritable — so bitter fits right in . Since the 1400s , crabbedhas sometimes referred to tastes and other things that are closer to a triple IPA than a chocolate cookie . OED examples of “ holler supper ” and “ crabbed amusement ” both healthy displeasing to the stomach .
5. ABSINTHIAN
This word , found in English since the 1600s , is in the main a literary term suggesting wormwood in its early uses ; later , it started applying to the green alcohol that is bitter and often illegal . A 1635 couplet from poet Thomas Randolph sounds like profound dietetical advice : “ Best Physique then , when saddle sore with sugar meets , Tempring Absinthian bitternesse with sweets . ” A later consumption , from 1882 by poet Egbert Martin , get to a more ghostly testimonial : “ Prayer can empty life ’s absinthian gall , Rest and peace and subdued wait its call . ”
6. RODENT
Now here ’s a flakey , and rare , bend on a common word . Though we ’re most familiar with gnawer as the nasty rats excavate through your garbage and the adorable hamster twirl in a wheel , this term has from time to time been an adjective . Though by and by uses use to corrosiveness and real rodents , the earliest known example have-to doe with to bitterness . A aesculapian exercise from 1633 , touch on to the bodily humors , show how this odd term was used : “ They shock in caliber , being too red-hot , or too dusty , or too knifelike , and rodent . ”
7. NIPPIT
The first United States ofnippit , found in the 1500s , refer to scarcity , which may be because this is a mutant ofnipped . In the 1800s , the full term circulate to miserliness and narrow - mindedness , and from there to more general bitterness . OED representative distinguish “ nippit words ” and people who are “ mean or nippit . ”
8. SNELL
This miraculous discussion first touch to physical and mental quickness . A “ snell remark ” establish a quick wittiness . But that keenness pass around to a different sort of asperity : the severity or crispness of sulfurous weather . An 1822 function fromBlackwood ’s Edinburgh Magazineuses this sense : “ The wintry air is snell and knifelike . ”
9. TETRICAL
The Latinate term for bitterness and scratchiness of various sorts appear in José Francisco de Isla ’s 1772 bookThe History of the Famous Preacher Friar Gerund de Campazas , describing some non - fresh folks : " Some so tetrical , so cross - grain , and of so tainted a gustation . " A similar meaning is shared by the also - rare termstetric , tetricity , tetricious , andtetritude . Thankfully , there is no relation to the sweet plot of Tetris .
