ire

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ire,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French ire, also yre ("anger, wrath, violence"), recorded from the 11th century,^[4][5][6] from Latin īra (“anger, wrath, rage”).^[4][5][6][3] The MED derives the Middle English word from both the Old French and the Latin.^[2] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from the early 12th century, meant anger, the wrath of God, anguish and quarrel.^[7] The Latin noun goes back to the root Proto-Indo-European *eis-, which formed words for passion and quick motion,^[5][3][8] and is related to Ancient Greek οἶστρος (oîstros, “gadfly; frenzy”), the source of oestrus,^[5][8][9] and Lithuanian aistra (“violent passion”).^[5][8] Old English had irre in a similar sense, but it is unrelated: it comes from an adjective meaning wandering, straying or angry, akin to err.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Anger, wrath: before 1300, in the Early English Prose Psalter,^[4] and about 1300 in King Horn in the MED.^[2] Barnhart dates it probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English ire was anger in general, the deadly sin of wrath, a fit of rage and the wrath of God or of a pagan god, as in day of ire, Judgement Day.^[2] The Anglo-Norman word had a similar range.^[7] A verb ire, to anger, is recorded about 1420;^[4] the OED marks it obsolete, but Merriam-Webster still lists it.^[10] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as anger, rage or passionate hatred, quoting Sidney and Shakespeare.^[11] The noun is now chiefly literary, poetic or rhetorical.^[4][12][13]

Timeline

• before 1300 – anger, wrath.^[4][6]
• c. 1420 – verb, to make angry.^[4]
• before 1425 – plural, fits of anger (obsolete).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) Anger or wrath: The new tax drew the ire of farmers.^[12][10][4]

Verb

1. To make angry; to irritate.^[10][4]

Word family

• ireful
• ireless

Related words

• irascible
• irate
• oestrus

Usage notes

In the dialects of southern and south-western England ire was also a form of iron,^[14][10] a separate word shortened from it.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)