Noah Webster
Harshness
H'ARSHNESS, noun Roughness to the touch; opposed to softness and smoothness.
1. Sourness; austereness; as the harshness of fruit.
2. Roughness to the ear; as the harshness of sound or of a voice, or of verse.
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
3. Roughness of temper; moroseness; crabbedness; peevishness.
4. Roughness in manner or words; severity; as the harshness of reproof.