Astringent

Word of the Day for Tuesday, March 13, 2012

astringent \uh-STRIN-juhnt\, adjective:

1. Sharply incisive; pungent.
2. Medicine/Medical. Contracting; constrictive; styptic.
3. Harshly biting; caustic: his astringent criticism.
4. Stern or severe; austere.

noun:
1. Medicine/Medical. A substance that contracts the tissues or canals of the body, thereby diminishing discharges, as of mucus or blood.
2. A cosmetic that cleans the skin and constricts the pores.

One endeavours to correct, flushing out error and misconception with the astringent power of historical detail; the other treats the myth as meaningful cultural phenomenon in its own right, accounting for its emergence and tracing its development across time.
-- Beth Newman, Emily Brontë, "Introduction," Wuthering Heights

But here too she was thinner, and going unripe, astringent.
-- D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover

Related to the words strain and string, astringent comes from the Latin root stringere which meant "to draw tight."

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/