asperity

noun7

1. •
   A section of a fault line with high friction, such that there is no movement along this part of the fault except during an earthquake.
2. •
   (formal, figurative) The quality of being harsh or severe in the way one behaves or speaks toward another person; (countable, chiefly in the plural) a deeply hostile or resentful feeling; an animosity, a hatred.

   • But least he shoulde offend the Iewes with the asperitie of the word, if hee had said that the lawe was dead, hee vsed a digression, or deflection, saying, we are dead to the law. — 1583
3. •
   (formal, figurative) The quality of being difficult or unpleasant to experience; (countable) a thing that is harsh and difficult to endure; a difficulty, a hardship.

   • The nakedness and asperity of vvintry nature alvvays fills the beholder vvith pensive and profound astonishment: […] — 1751
4. •
   (formal) The quality of having a rough or uneven surface; roughness, unevenness; (countable, chiefly in the plural) a protruding or rough area or point on a surface; a protrusion.

   • Oyle of swete Almondes and of sisami taketh away the asperitie and roughenesse of the throte. — 1553
5. •
   (figurative, no longer used) Of sound: gratingness, harshness.

   • [T]he importunate, harsh and disharmonious Coaxations of Frogs, (so called in the Greek from that very ungratefull noise, […] from the shrilness and asperity of the noise they make) […] — 1664
6. •
   (figurative, no longer used) Of taste: harshness or sharpness; acridity, tartness.
7. •
   (figurative, no longer used) Of writing: a lack of elegance and refinement; inelegance, roughness.