Etymologically
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irascor

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [iːˈraːs.kɔr][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [iˈras.kor][1]

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]

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