irascible

English

WOTD – 8 August 2008

Etymology

From French irascible, from Late Latin īrāscibilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈɹæs.ɪ.bəl/, /ɪˈɹæs.ə.bəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪbəl

Adjective

irascible (comparative more irascible, superlative most irascible)

1. Easily provoked to outbursts of anger; irritable.
   • 1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), New York, N.Y.: Inskeep & Bradford, […], →OCLC:
     chapter 16

     […] the surly and irascible passions which, like belligerent powers, lie encamped around the heart.

   • 1863, Louisa May Alcott, “chapter 1”, in Hospital Sketches:

     I am naturally irascible, and if I could have shaken this negative gentleman vigorously, the relief would have been immense.

   • 1921, William Butler Yeats, “chapter 10”, in Four Years:

     […] a never idle man of great physical strength and extremely irascible—did he not fling a badly baked plum pudding through the window upon Xmas Day?

   • 2004 Feb. 29, Daniel Kadlec, “Why He's Meanspan”, in Time‎^[1]:

     Alan Greenspan was on an irascible roll last week, first dissing everyone who holds a fixed-rate mortgage — suckers! — and later picking on folks who collect Social Security: Get back to work, Grandma.

Synonyms

• cantankerous, choleric, cranky, ill-tempered, hot-tempered

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to irascible

• irascibility

• irascibleness

• irascibly

Translations

prone to anger

• Bulgarian: раздразнителен (bg) (razdraznitelen), избухлив (bg) (izbuhliv)
• Catalan: irascible
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 暴躁 (zh) (bàozào), 急躁 (zh) (jízào)

• Crimean Tatar: eserli
• Danish: opfarende
• Dutch: opvliegend (nl), humeurig (nl), prikkelbaar (nl)
• Esperanto: incitiĝema, kolerema
• Estonian: ärrituv
• Finnish: äkeä (fi), äreä (fi), ärhäkkä
• French: irascible (fr)
• Georgian: ბრაზიანი (braziani), გაღიზიანებადი (gaɣizianebadi)
• German: aufbrausend (de), jähzornig (de)
• Greek: ευέξαπτος (el) (evéxaptos), ευερέθιστος (el) (everéthistos)

  Ancient: ὀργίλος (orgílos), ἀκράχολος (akrákholos), ὀξύθυμος (oxúthumos)

• Irish: colgach, tobann
• Italian: irascibile (it)
• Latin: īrāscibilis
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: whanewhane, āritarita, kiriwetiweti
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: oppfarende, bråsint

  Nynorsk: oppfarande, bråsinna, bråsint

• Occitan: irós (oc), irascible, tissós (oc)
• Polish: drażliwy (pl), wybuchowy (pl), gniewny (pl)
• Portuguese: irascível (pt), irritável (pt)
• Romanian: irascibil (ro)
• Russian: вспыльчивый (ru) (vspylʹčivyj)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: sćakły

• Spanish: irascible (es), colérico (es), mañoso (es) (Latin America), iracundo (es)
• Swedish: lättretlig, hetlevrad (sv), hetsig (sv)
• Turkish: asabi (tr), sinirli (tr), atarlı (tr) (slang), aksi (tr), ters (tr), huysuz (tr), hırçın (tr), şirret (tr)
• Welsh: piwis (cy), gwyllt (cy), blin (cy), pigog (cy)

References

• “irascible”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin īrāscibilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [i.ɾəˈsib.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [i.ɾaˈsi.ble]

Adjective

irascible m or f (masculine and feminine plural irascibles)

1. irascible

Related terms

• ira
• irascibilitat

Further reading

• “irascible” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “irascible”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “irascible” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “irascible” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin īrāscibilis, from īrāscor (“grow angry”), from īra (“anger”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i.ʁa.sibl/

• Audio (Switzerland):

  (file)

Adjective

irascible (plural irascibles)

1. irascible

Related terms

• irascibilité
• ire

Further reading

• “irascible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• ciblerais

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Spanish

Etymology

From Latin īrāscibilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /iɾasˈθible/ [i.ɾasˈθi.β̞le]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /iɾaˈsible/ [i.ɾaˈsi.β̞le]

Adjective

irascible m or f (masculine and feminine plural irascibles)

1. irascible

Related terms

• irascibilidad

Further reading

• “irascible”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014