iratus

Forms

īrātus (feminine īrāta, neuter īrātum, comparative īrātior, superlative īrātissimus, adverb iratē); first/second-declension participle^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin īra (“anger”) + -ātus, and was later taken as the participle of īrāscor (“to grow angry”), which arose from it by back-formation.^[2][1][3] īra goes back to Proto-Italic *eisā- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁eis-h₂- (“anger”);^[3] Plautus spells it ⟨eira⟩.^[3]

Compare Avestan aēšma- (“wrath”) and Ancient Greek οἶμα (oîma, “rush”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[4] who has omitte īrātus esse, “stop being angry”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Īrātus is “angry, enraged, furious”, especially with a dative of the person one is angry with.^[2][1] Church Latin glosses it “angry”.^[5] English irate comes from it in 1838.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: omitte īrātus esse.^[2][4]
• 1838 – Borrowed into English as irate.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. angry, enraged, furious.^[2][1][5]

Word family

• perīrātus

Related words

• īra
• īrāscor
• īrācundus
• English irate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com