irritable

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin irrītābilis (“easily excited”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from irrītō (“to excite, provoke, annoy”) and the suffix -bilis.^[6][3][7] According to Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary it is also borrowed from French irritable,^[8][9] a French word the OED dates to 1547.^[2] The Latin verb is the source of irritate.^[2][8] According to de Vaan, as reported by Etymonline, it is probably made from Proto-Italic *rīto- (“stirred”), from the same root as run;^[8] Klein took it as a frequentative of a verb made of in- and Proto-Indo-European *erei- (“to set in motion, stir up”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Readily excited to anger or impatience: 1662, in Henry More's Collection of Several Philosophical Writings.^[2] Merriam-Webster's Unabridged gives the same year,^[3] Etymonline the 1660s^[8] and Dictionary.com 1655–65.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The physiological senses came in the late 18th century.^[2] In 1791 Burke used it for something readily excited to action, and it was soon applied to a bodily organ or part that is morbidly sensitive;^[2][8] from 1793, in physiology and biology, it described tissue that responds to a physical stimulus.^[2][5] Medicine later named conditions with it: irritable heart, a syndrome of breathlessness, palpitations and chest pain also called soldier's heart, from 1864,^[2] and irritable bowel syndrome, a stress-related disorder of the bowel, from 1943.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1662 – easily angered or annoyed.^[2][3]
• 1791 – readily excited to action; of a body part, abnormally sensitive.^[2][8]
• 1793 – in physiology and biology, able to respond to a stimulus.^[2][5]
• 1864 – irritable heart, a syndrome of breathlessness and palpitations.^[2]
• 1943 – irritable bowel syndrome.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Quick to anger: easily annoyed or made impatient; peevish: He gets irritable when he skips lunch.^[10][3][2]
2. Abnormally sensitive to irritants or stimuli, as a bodily organ: an irritable stomach.^[3][10][5]
3. (biology) Of living tissue or an organism, able to respond to stimuli such as heat, light or touch.^[10][3][2]

Word family

• irritableness
• irritably
• nonirritable
• unirritable
• irritability
• irritable bowel syndrome
• irritable heart

Related words

• irritate
• irritation
• irritant

Usage notes

Dictionary.com compares it with testy, touchy and irascible: irritable means easily annoyed and suggests cross, snappish behaviour;^[6] testy describes the same reaction, especially to small annoyances;^[6] touchy stresses oversensitivity and readiness to take offence;^[6] irascible means habitually angry or quickly roused to anger.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins