Both Uses

acerbic
in
Queen of Attolia
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Eddis had heard several people, out of the Thief's hearing, lamenting the loss of his acerbic comments on the court but found that she missed his grin more.†
Chpt 10 *

acerbic = sour; or harsh
Eugenides, for his part, gravely asked the queen to dance and was as gravely granted the privilege, but Attolia spoke to him only in the most formulaic phrases, and Eddis knew that he responded with the acerbic comments sotto voce for which he was famous.†
Chpt 20

Definitions:

(1) (acerbic)
clever or funny, but also harsh or cruel
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
More rarely, acerbic can refer to a "sour or bitter in taste".