anger

Meanings

Noun

• A strong feeling of displeasure, hostility or antagonism towards someone or something, usually combined with an urge to harm, often stemming from perceived provocation, hurt, or threat.
• Pain or stinging.

Verb

• To cause such a feeling of antagonism in.
• To become angry.

Related

Similar words

• enrage, infuriate; annoy, vex, grill, displease; aggravate, irritate
• get angry (see angry for more)

Origin

• From Middle English anger, from Old Norse angr, ǫngr (compare Old Norse ang, ǫng), from Proto-Germanic *angazaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ-. Cognate with Danish anger ("regret, remorse"), Norwegian Bokmål anger ("regret, remorse"), Swedish ånger ("regret"), Icelandic angur ("trouble"), Old English ange, enge, Dutch anjer ("carnation"), German Angst ("anxiety, anguish, fear"), Latin angō ("squeeze, choke, vex"), Albanian ang ("fear, anxiety, pain, nightmare"), Avestan 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀 ("destructive"), Ancient Greek ἄγχω ("I squeeze, strangle"), Sanskrit अंहु ("anxiety, distress"). Also compare with English anguish, anxious, quinsy, and perhaps to awe and ugly. The word seems to have originally meant “to choke, squeeze”.
• The verb is from Middle English angren, angeren, from Old Norse angra. Compare with Icelandic angra, Norwegian Nynorsk angra, Norwegian Bokmål angre, Swedish ångra, Danish angre.