Etymologically
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iracunde

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Forms

īrācundē (comparative īrācundius, superlative īrācundissimē)[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin īrācundus (“irascible, hot-tempered”) + -ē,[2][3] the adverb of an adjective made from īra (“anger, rage”).[4][5] De Vaan notes that the suffix ⟨-cundus⟩ is rare and cannot be original in ⟨īrācundus⟩: it was taken over from other adjectives in ⟨-cundus⟩.[4] He reconstructs that noun as Proto-Italic *eisra- and Proto-Indo-European *h1eis-h2- (“anger”), an etymology he accepts in the absence of a better one, since both the intervocalic /s/ and the link with a root meaning “to urge” are uncertain.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Conte cites it first from Plautus' Asinaria;[6] Köbler's earliest source is Cicero.[5] It means with anger, angrily.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Cicero has the comparative īrācundius, “more angrily”, in the Pro Roscio comoedo and the Pro Sulla.[7][8] Pliny the Elder writes īrācundē ferre with an accusative and infinitive, to take it angrily that something is so.[8][6] The OLD defines it as with anger or with a proneness to anger, irately or irritably.[2] In medieval Latin from Britain it keeps the classical sense, angrily, irately.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Asinaria.[6][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the adverb and its comparative.[7][8][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder has īrācundē ferre, to be angry at something.[8][6][5]
  • 1366 – A British record uses it in the sense “angrily”.[9]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Angrily, with anger; irritably, from a hot temper.[2][10][7]
  2. (with ferre and an accusative and infinitive) To take it ill that something is so, be indignant that.[8]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press