rage

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɹeɪd͡ʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English, borrowed from Old French rage (“spirit, passion, fury, madness”), raige,^[2][3][4] from Medieval and Late Latin rabia, from Latin rabies (“madness, rage, fury”),^[3][2][4] related to rabere, to be mad, rave.^[3][2][5] Barnhart and MWU compare Sanskrit rábhas, violence,^[2][4] but de Vaan finds the proposed PIE *rebʰ- uncertain and sees no convincing etymology.^[3] It is a doublet of rabies.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Violent anger, madness, passion: probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder;^[2] madness, insanity, about 1325 in the OED.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Its early senses also included rashness, fierceness in battle and the violence of storms and fire.^[3] A fit of carnal desire is from the late 14th century,^[3] and in the 15th–16th centuries it could mean rabies.^[3][6] The verb first meant to play, romp (about 1250),^[2][3] and to be furious from the early 14th century.^[3][2] Of things, to be violently agitated, it is from the 1530s.^[3] The rage, a fashion or vogue, dates from 1785;^[3] Word Origins dates all the rage to the late 18th century, and road rage is first recorded in 1988.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – to romp (verb).^[2]
• before 1300 – violent anger.^[2]
• late 14th century – lust.^[3]
• 1530s – of storms.^[3]
• 1785 – the rage, a fashion.^[3]
• 1988 – road rage.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Violent, uncontrolled anger, or a fit of it.
2. Furious intensity, as of a storm or disease.
3. A burning desire or passion.
4. Aggressive behaviour linked to a setting: road rage.
5. A fashion or craze: all the rage.

Verb

1. To speak or act in violent anger.
2. To move or spread with great violence.

Word family

• rageful
• ragingly
• outrage
• air rage
• road rage

Related words

• rabies
• rabid
• enrage
• rave

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press