iracundus

Forms

īrācundus (feminine īrācunda, neuter īrācundum, adverb īrācundē); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Priscian records a spelling -ond-.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin īra (“anger”) + -cundus.^[3][1] De Vaan notes that the rare suffix ⟨-cundus⟩ cannot be original here and was taken over from other adjectives in ⟨-cundus⟩.^[4] He derives ⟨īra⟩ from Proto-Italic *eis/ra- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁eis-h₂- (“anger”), cognate with Avestan aēšma- (“wrath”) and Ancient Greek οἶμα (oîma, “rush”), an etymology he accepts for want of a better one.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the OLD date it from Plautus,^[5] who has “a hot-tempered man of reckless mind”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means prone to anger, irascible, and also angry at a given moment: in Plautus someone is told it is not for them to be angry at what was said in jest.^[3] Seneca draws the distinction: an angry man need not be irascible, but an irascible man cannot help being angry at times.^[6] Of actions it is marked by anger, as when Cicero says a victory would have been too wrathful.^[3]

Isidore explained it as named from blood kindled into fury, with Hebrew ur “fire”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a hot-tempered man.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of an angry victory.^[3][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca distinguishes it from īrātus.^[6][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore's derivation.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Prone to anger, hot-tempered, irascible, irritable.^[3][6][1]
2. angry, enraged; of actions, marked by anger.^[3][1]

Word family

• īrācundia

Related words

• īra
• īrātus
• īrāscor

Usage notes

Seneca's distinction is īrātus potest nōn esse īrācundus; īrācundus nōn potest aliquandō īrātus nōn esse.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press