early 15c., irritacioun, in physiology, in reference to sores and morbid swelling, from Old French irritacion or directly from Latin irritationem (nominative irritatio) "incitement, stimulus; irritation, wrath, anger," noun of action from past-participle stem of irritare "to excite, provoke" (see irritate). Meaning "impatient or angry excitement" is from 1703.
"angry, inclined to wrath," 1707, from Late Latin iracundus, from ira "anger, wrath, rage, passion" (see ire (n.)). Related: Iracundulous (1765).
[T]he Severn is so mischievous and cholerick a river, and so often ruins the country with sudden inundations, since it rises in Wales, and consequently participates sometimes of the nature of that hasty, iracund people among whom 'tis born. [Thomas Browne, "Letters from the Dead to the Living," 1707]
(obsolete) "full of wrath," also "anxious," early 13c., from Old French angoissos "anxious, worried, distressed; difficult; painful," from angoisse "distress, anxiety, rage" (see anguish (n.)). Related: Anguishously.
c. 1200, "to irritate, annoy, provoke," from Old Norse angra "to grieve, vex, distress; to be vexed at, take offense with," from Proto-Germanic *angaz (source also of Old English enge "narrow, painful," Middle Dutch enghe, Gothic aggwus "narrow"), from PIE *anghos, suffixed form of root *angh- "tight, painfully constricted, painful."
In Middle English, also of physical pain. The meaning "excite to wrath, make angry" is from late 14c. Related: Angered; angering.
c. 1300, from Old French ire "anger, wrath, violence" (11c.), from Latin ira "anger, wrath, rage, passion," from PIE root *eis- (1), forming various words denoting passion (source also of Greek hieros "filled with the divine, holy," oistros "gadfly," originally "thing causing madness;" Sanskrit esati "drives on," yasati "boils;" Avestan aesma "anger;" Lithuanian aistra "violent passion").
Old English irre in a similar sense is unrelated; it is from an adjective irre "wandering, straying, angry," which is cognate with Old Saxon irri "angry," Old High German irri "wandering, deranged," also "angry;" Gothic airzeis "astray," and Latin errare "wander, go astray, angry" (see err (v.)).
"migrant agricultural worker," especially (but not exclusively) one driven from farms in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl, 1938, short for U.S. state of Oklahoma.
"Okie use' ta mean you was from Oklahoma. Now it means you're a dirty son-of-a-bitch." [John Steinbeck, "The Grapes of Wrath," 1939]
1570s, Nemesis, "Greek goddess of vengeance, personification of divine wrath," from Greek nemesis "just indignation, righteous anger," literally "distribution" (of what is due), related to nemein "distribute, allot, apportion one's due," from PIE root *nem- "assign, allot; take." The notion is "divine allotment to everyone of his share of fortune, good or bad." With a lower-case -n-, in the sense of "retributive justice," attested from 1590s. General sense of "anything by which it seems one must be defeated" is by 1930.
