ACRIDITY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Acridity

... "acrid" for lack of a better, in endeavoring to express my idea of Jerrold's way of looking at men and books. It was not quite what I meant; but, in fact, he often is acrid, and has written pages and volumes of acridity, though, no doubt, with an honest purpose, and from a manly disgust at the cant and humbug of the world. Jerrold said no more, and I went on talking with Dr. ———; but, in a minute or two, I became aware that something had gone ...

— Passages From the English Notebooks, Complete • Nathaniel Hawthorne