outrage

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈaʊt.ɹeɪd͡ʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English outrage, borrowed from Anglo-Norman utrage and Old French outrage (earlier oltrage),^[2][3][4] from outre (“beyond”) and -age,^[2][5] from Latin ultrā (“beyond”),^[3][2] or through a noun formed from it, Vulgar Latin *ultrāticum (“excess”).^[3][6][7][8] Despite its look it has no connection with out or rage,^[7][9] although English speakers have long reanalysed it that way.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wild, passionate or disorderly behaviour, and an act of violence or gross wrong, both from about 1300;^[2] Barnhart's first sense is violent behaviour, excess or extravagance, probably before 1300 in Kyng Alisaunder.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Etymologically the word means going beyond reasonable bounds in any way,^[3] and its early senses included excess in food or drink (about 1325 to 1756) and presumption or rashness (1387 to 1715).^[2][10] The folk link with rage pushed it toward violent excess,^[3][11] and those senses died out while "act of violence" and "gross injury or affront" survived.^[2] Use of injuries to feelings or principles is from 1735 in the OED and 1769 in Etymonline,^[2][3] and the feeling of fierce indignation, originally Scottish, from 1572.^[2] The verb, first "to go to excess", meant to do violence to someone from the 1580s,^[3][12] and SOED notes that one of its senses was influenced by the verb rage.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – disorderly or violent behaviour; an act of violence.^[2]
• c. 1300 – the verb, to act immoderately.^[3]
• c. 1325 – excess, intemperance (obsolete by 1756).^[2]
• 1572 – fierce indignation.^[2]
• 1590 – the verb, to subject to violence or insult.^[12]
• 1735 – a gross wrong to feelings or principles.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An act of great violence or cruelty.
2. An act or situation that grossly offends against what is right or decent; an affront.
3. Intense anger or indignation at such an act.

Verb

1. To make someone extremely angry or shocked.
2. To do violence to, or grossly violate.

Related words

• outrageous
• outré
• ultra-
• ulterior

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press