irascible

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English irascibel,^[2] also irascible,^[3] borrowed from Old French irascible,^[4][5][6] recorded from the 12th century,^[4][5] and directly borrowed from Late Latin īrāscibilis (“prone to anger”),^[4][7][8] from Latin īrāscor (“to be angry, grow angry”),^[4][6][9] from īra (“anger”),^[6][9][10] with the suffix -ibilis.^[2][10] Latin īra, the source of ire, goes back to Proto-Indo-European *eis- (“passion”).^[4][6] Partridge and Etymonline compare Lithuanian aistra (“violent passion”).^[8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun in philosophy, the power of the soul that hates and rejects evil: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum, where the soul has a rational, a concupiscible and an irascible power.^[3][7][5]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English as a philosophical term: the irascible part of the soul, which goes back to Plato's division of the soul, was one of the two irrational parts,^[5][11] the seat of courage and anger, set against the concupiscible.^[11][10] The everyday sense, easily made angry, is not recorded until 1530, in Palsgrave,^[5][7] and Hoad and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the word from the 16th century.^[9][10] From 1659 it was also used of emotions and actions.^[5] Johnson (1755) still defined it as "partaking of the nature of anger", with a quotation on the irascible passions.^[12]

Timeline

• 1398 – the part or power of the soul that resists evil, in Trevisa.^[5][3][7]
• 1530 – easily made angry, in Palsgrave.^[5][7]
• 1594 – as a noun, the irascible appetite (until 1656).^[5]
• 1659 – of emotions and actions, showing anger.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Easily made angry; irritable or hot-tempered: an irascible old magistrate.^[13][10][5]
2. Showing or coming from anger: an irascible outburst.^[13][5]
3. (philosophy) Of the part of the soul that is moved by combative feelings such as anger, pride and fear, as opposed to the concupiscible.^[10][5][11]

Noun

1. (obsolete) The irascible part of the soul.^[3][5]

Word family

• irascibility
• irascibly
• irascibleness
• unirascible

Related words

• ire
• irate
• oestrus

Usage notes

The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, says that irascible points to quicker and fiercer bursts of anger than irritable, but to less powerful, lasting or visible ones than passionate.^[4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins