exasperate

English

Etymology

From Latin exasperō; ex (“out of; thoroughly”) + asperō (“make rough”), from asper (“rough”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzæsp(ə)ɹeɪt/
• (Received Pronunciation, also) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɑːspəɹeɪt/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -æspəɹeɪt
• Hyphenation: ex‧as‧per‧ate

Verb

exasperate (third-person singular simple present exasperates, present participle exasperating, simple past and past participle exasperated)

1. To tax the patience of; irk, frustrate, vex, provoke, annoy; to make angry.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:

     And this report
     Hath so exasperate [sic] the king that he
     Prepares for some attempt of war.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.

   • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

     Beadle goes into various shops and parlours, examining the inhabitants; always shutting the door first, and by exclusion, delay, and general idiotcy, exasperating the public.

   • 1987 January 5, "Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino," Time:

     [S]he exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.

   • 2007 June 4, "Loyal Mail," Times Online (UK) (retrieved 7 Oct 2010):

     News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.

Translations

frustrate, vex, annoy

• Bulgarian: раздразвам (bg) (razdrazvam), разгневявам (bg) (razgnevjavam)
• Catalan: exasperar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 使(sb.) 恼怒 (zh) (shǐ (sb. ) nǎo nù)

• Dutch: tot wanhoop drijven
• Finnish: ärsyttää (fi), suututtaa (fi)
• French: exaspérer (fr)
• German: verärgern (de), aufbringen (de), auf die Palme bringen
• Greek: εξοργίζω (el) (exorgízo)

  Ancient: παροργίζω (parorgízō)

• Hungarian: dühít (hu), feldühít (hu), felbőszít (hu), bőszít (hu), ingerel (hu), bosszant (hu)
• Ido: iracigar (io), exasperar (io)
• Irish: cráigh
• Maori: whakahōhā, whakakawakawa, rangirangi
• Persian: کفر کسی را در آوردن‎ (kofr-e kasi râ dar âvardan)
• Polish: wkurzać
• Portuguese: exasperar (pt)
• Russian: серди́ть (ru) (serdítʹ), раздража́ть (ru) (razdražátʹ), возмущать (ru) (vozmuščatʹ), изводи́ть (ru) (izvodítʹ), (informal) беси́ть (ru) (besítʹ), приводи́ть в я́рость (privodítʹ v járostʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: sàraich
• Spanish: exasperar (es)

Adjective

exasperate (comparative more exasperate, superlative most exasperate)

1. (obsolete) exasperated; embittered.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     Thersites. Do I curse thee?
     Patroclus. Why no, you ruinous butt, you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no.
     Thersites. No! why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk […]

   • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Fourth Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 177:

     Like swallows which the exasperate dying year
     Sets spinning […]

Related terms

• asperate
• asperity

 

See also

• exacerbate

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “exasperate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Ido

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eksaspeˈrate/, /eɡzaspeˈrate/

Verb

exasperate

1. adverbial present passive participle of exasperar

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ek.sas.peˈraː.te/, [ɛks̠äs̠pɛˈräːt̪ɛ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ek.sas.peˈra.te/, [eɡzäspeˈräːt̪e]

Verb

exasperāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of exasperō

Spanish

Verb

exasperate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of exasperar combined with te