English → Latin
“harshness” in Latin
asperitāsunevenness, roughness; harshness, sharpness, acidity, tartness; severity, fierceness, asperityacerbitāssourness of taste, with bitterness and astringency, like that of unripe fruit; harshness, severity; sorrowinīquitāsunfairness, inequality, unevenness; injustice, inequity; iniquityaustēritāsbitterness, harshness, sourness, astringency; darkness, dinginess, sombreness; severity, austerity, strictness, sternnesvīnumwine; grapes; a grapevine
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
harshness
asperitas (roughness): acerbitas (bitterness, sour, oppressive nature or quality): iniquitas (oppressiveness, oppressing nature or quality; e.g., improper severity of a person). Harshness of character, animus durus, animi duritas, ingenium durum (hardness of heart): severitas dura (inexorable severity): animi atrocitas (inhumanity of disposition; opposed to humanitas et misericordia): austeritas (perhaps not prae-Augustan; of harshness to the taste, vini, etc.; also, austeritas nimia, Col., ; also, figuratively, with reference to colors unpleasantly dark, and to stern strictness of conduct; opposed to comitas, Quint.). You find no harshness of expression in Herodotus. Herodotus sine ullis salebris fluit.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for harshness?
- The usual Latin words for “harshness” are asperitās, acerbitās, inīquitās; also austēritās, vīnum. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.