irascor

Forms

īrāscor (present infinitive īrāscī, perfect active īrātus sum); third conjugation, deponent^[1] Pomponius has an active īrāscō.^[2][3] Plautus has the old infinitive īrāscier.^[3] All perfect forms are taken as īrātus.^[2]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from īrātus (“angry”), as if that were the participle of a verb.^[2][4][1] De Vaan notes that the verb cannot be made directly from īra (“anger”), while the adjective was formed from the noun.^[4] He derives īra from Proto-Italic *eis/ra-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eis-h₂- (“anger”), comparing Avestan aēšma- (“wrath”), Ancient Greek οἶμα (oîma, “spring, rush”) and Sanskrit इष् (íṣ-, “refreshment, strength”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[4] Terence uses it as “to fly into a rage”: ille continuō īrāscī, “he at once flew into a rage”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Īrāscī is “to feel resentment, be angry”, usually with the dative of the person, and with inceptive force “to become angry”.^[2][3] Cicero speaks of one quī facile et cito īrāscitur, “who gets angry easily and quickly”, and Virgil uses it of a bull learning to put its rage into its horns.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “to be angry or full of wrath”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[4][3][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence: ille continuō īrāscī.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: quī facile et cito īrāscitur.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a bull.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be angry, feel resentment (usually with a dative).^[2][3][1][5]
2. To become angry, fly into a rage.^[2]

Related words

• īra
• īrātus
• īrācundus

References

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