Etymologically
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rage

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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
  • 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