acidulous

Learned borrowing from Latin acidulus (“sourish, acidulous”), dimunitive of acidus (“sour, acid”). See acid.

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

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acidulous

1. Slightly sour; sub-acid; 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, […], 10th edition, London: […] J. Owen, […], and F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […], OCLC 559505243:

     the hard, acidulous, metallic tincture of the spring

2. (figuratively) 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