iracundia

Forms

īrācundia f (genitive īrācundiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin īrācundus (“irascible”) + -ia.^[2][1] The adjective comes from īra (“anger”) with a suffix ⟨-cundus⟩ taken from other adjectives; de Vaan traces ⟨īra⟩ to Proto-Indo-European *h₁eysh₂- (“anger”), cognate with Ancient Greek οἶμα (oîma, “rush, spring”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Plautus as its first author.^[3] In the Curculio a man says he goes about angry with no moderate īrācundia.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a proneness to anger, hot temper: in Terence Demea is told to drop his irascibility and be cheerful at his son's wedding.^[2] It is also anger itself, passion or resentment, as in Plautus.^[2] Cicero sets it among the lasting dispositions of the mind, as anxiety is in some people, irascibility in others.^[4] Church Latin glosses it “wrath, anger”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of anger.^[3][2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of a hot temper.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of irascibility as a disposition.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Proneness to anger, hot temper, irascibility.^[2][1]
2. Anger, wrath, passion.^[2][1][5]

Related words

• īrācundus
• īra
• īrāscor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de