pungency | Dictionaries | Morcus Latin Tools

• pungency: a pricking or stinging quality.

I. Affecting the organs of sense, esp. the nose, as snuff, hartshorn, etc.; the tongue, as acids and acrid things; the eyes, as smoke and vapours:

1. express by verb, pungo: v. pungent.
2. morsus, ūs: the p. of vinegar, aceti m.: cf. Mart. 7, 25, nec cibus ipse juvat morsu fraudatus aceti: esp. when a corrosive power is implied, as "any substance which by its p. can wound the worms, will kill them, as steel and hartshorn" (Arbuthnot): cf scabros nigrae morsu rubiginis enses, Lucan 1, 243.
3. ācrĭmōnĭa (either an agreeable or disagreeable sharpness). sweet with a certain p. (of the gum called sarcocolla), cum quadam a. dulcis, Plin. 24, 14, 78: if the sore cannot bear the p. (or smart) of the cabbage, si ulcus acrimoniam brassicae ferre non poterit, Cato R. R. 157. Also ācrĭtas, Gell. 13, 3, and ācrĭtūdo, ĭnis, f., Vitr. 2, 9.
4. ăcerbĭtas (only of unpleasant sensations; as the sourness of unripe fruit), Plin. 15, 14, 15: for fig. sense, compare Cic. Planc. 38, 92, fructus non laetos et uberes, sed magna acerbitate permixtos tulissem.

II. The quality of keenly affecting the mind; said of keen wit or sarcasm:

1. ăcūlĕus (esp. pl.): in debate witty with some p., in altercando cum aliquo a. et male dicto facetus, Cic. Brut. 47, 173: the p. (or stings) of sarcasm, aculei contumeliarum, id. de Or. 2, 55, 222.
2. ăcerbĭtas: joined with sal (salt = wit), satirical p. with overflowing wit, a. et abunde salis, Quint. 10, 1, 94.
3. ācrĭmōnia, ācrĭtas (rare): the force and p. of truth, vis veritatis atque acritas, Att. in Non. 493, 14.
4. stĭmŭli, orum: the p. of grief, stimuli doloris, Cic. Tusc. 2, 27, 66 (cf. morsus doloris, the stings of grief, id. ib. 4, 7).

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