irrito

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ɪrˈriː.toː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [irˈriː.to]^[1]

Forms

irrītō (present infinitive irrītāre, perfect active irrītāvī, supine irrītātum); first conjugation^[1] Plautus has the old subjunctive irrītāssis for irrītāveris.^[2][3]

Etymology

De Vaan explains it as a verb from in- and a participle Proto-Italic *rīto- (“stirred”), Proto-Indo-European *h₃riH-to- (“whirled, stirred”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *h₃reyH- (“to whirl, flow”).^[4][5] A frequentative is possible only with haplology from *rītitāre.^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit रीयते (rī́yate, “flows, whirls”), Ancient Greek ὀρῑ́νω (orī́nō, “to stir up”) and Old English rīd (“stream”).^[4][2] Older dictionaries compared Ancient Greek ἐρεθίζω (erethízō, “to provoke”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, whose character warns that if he is provoked, the other will leave with broken loins.^[4][2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant to move to anger, provoke, vex, then to excite to action or feeling, rouse, stimulate, and to awaken a state of mind, as the licence Cicero roused rather than repressed.^[2] It also meant to aggravate a condition, as Ovid's rage that grows when checked, and in medicine to irritate a sensitive part, as Celsus' teeth.^[2] Döderlein says lacessō challenges the reason and will of another, while irrītāre provokes the feelings to anger.^[7]

English irritate was borrowed in the 1530s in the sense “to rouse”, and later took the meaning “to annoy”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of provoking someone.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of rousing licence.^[2][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of irritating the teeth.^[2][6]
• 1530s – English irritate is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To provoke, anger, vex.^[2]
2. To rouse, stimulate.^[2]
3. To awaken (a feeling).^[2]
4. To aggravate (a condition).^[2]
5. (medicine) To irritate.^[2]

Word family

• irrītābilis
• irrītāmen
• irrītāmentum
• irrītātiō
• irrītātor
• irrītātrīx
• irrītātus
• rītō

Related words

• prōrītō
• rīvus
• lacessō
• English irritate

Usage notes

A different late verb irritō with short i, from irritus “void”, meant “to make void, invalidate”.^[3][8]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.