A feeling of deep, often enduring anger, hurt, or resentment.
A feeling of deep, often enduring anger, hurt, or resentment; a soured, embittered state of mind (also literally, a sharp/acrid taste).
A diffuse, generalized souring of outlook — a chronic embittered disposition — rather than resentment's targeted grievance against a specific wrongdoer. Note the shared taste metaphor: bile, gall, acrimony all link bitter taste to ill feeling.
Native; from Old English biternys, from biter “having a harsh taste; angry, cruel.” Not borrowed.
Middle English biternesse, from Old English biternys “bitterness of taste or smell,” also “anguish, grief.” Bitter derives from PIE *bheid- “to split” (related to “bite”).
From the start (Old English) the word carried both a literal taste sense and a figurative emotional sense (“anguish, grief”); the interpersonal “ill will, malice” sense is attested by the mid-14th c. The figurative use has been continuous; no reliable evidence of a recent shift.