- asperity
- early 13c., asprete "harshness of feelings," a fig. use, from O.Fr. asperete (12c., Mod.Fr. āpreté), from L. asperitatem (nom. asperitas) "roughness," from asper "rough, harsh," of unknown origin; in L. used also of sour wine, bad weather, and hard times.
- gorse
- O.E. gors, from P.Gmc. *gurst- (cf. O.H.G. gersta, M.Du. gherste, Ger. gerste "barley"), from PIE *ghrzd- "roughness" (cf. L. hordeum "barley").
- horror
- late 14c., from O.Fr. horreur, from L. horror "bristling, roughness, rudeness, shaking, trembling," from horrere "to bristle with fear, shudder," from PIE base *ghers- "to bristle" (cf. Skt. harsate "bristles," Avestan zarshayamna- "ruffling one's feathers," L. eris (gen.) "hedgehog," Welsh garw "rough"). As a genre in film, 1936. Chamber of horrors originally (1849) was a gallery of notorious criminals in Madame Tussaud's wax exhibition.
- smooth
- O.E. smoš "free from roughness, not harsh," of unknown origin. Sense of "pleasant, polite, sincere" first recorded c.1390. Slang meaning "superior, classy, clever" is attested from 1893. The verb is first recorded c.1440. Smooth-bore in ref. to guns is from 1812. smooth talk (v.) is recorded from 1950. A 1599 dictionary has smoothboots "a flatterer, a faire spoken man, a cunning tongued fellow." The usual O.E. form was smeše, and there is a dial. smeeth found in places names, e.g. Smithfield, Smedley.