anger

From Middle English anger (“grief, pain, trouble, affliction, vexation, sorrow, wrath”), from Old Norse angr, ǫngr (“affliction, sorrow”) (compare Old Norse ang, ǫng (“troubled”)), from Proto-Germanic *angazaz (“grief, sorrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- (“narrow, tied together”).

Cognate with Danish anger (“regret, remorse”), Norwegian Bokmål anger (“regret, remorse”), Swedish ånger (“regret”), Icelandic angur (“trouble”), Old English ange, enge (“narrow, close, straitened, constrained, confined, vexed, troubled, sorrowful, anxious, oppressive, severe, painful, cruel”), German Angst (“anxiety, anguish, fear”), Latin angō (“squeeze, choke, vex”), angor (“strangulation; anguish, torment”) (whence the English doublet angor), Albanian ang (“fear, anxiety, pain, nightmare”), Avestan 𐬄𐬰𐬀𐬵 (ązah, “strangulation; distress”), Ancient Greek ἄγχω (ánkhō, “I squeeze, strangle”), Sanskrit अंहस् (aṃhas), अंहु (aṃhu, “anxiety, distress, affliction”, literally “narrowness”). Also compare with English anguish, anxious, quinsy, and perhaps to awe and ugly. The word seems to have originally meant “to choke, squeeze”.^[1]

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.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæŋɡə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæŋɡɚ/, [ˈeɪŋɡɚ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋɡə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: an‧ger

anger (countable and uncountable, plural angers)

1. A strong and unpleasant feeling of displeasure, hostility, or antagonism towards someone or something, usually combined with an urge to yell, say curse words, and/or physically harm or cause damage or destruction to things or attack or assault living beings, often stemming from perceived provocation, hurt, threat, insults, or unfair or unjust treatment, or a situation not going the way one had desired or planned.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:anger

   vent one's anger

   relieve one's anger

   manage one's anger

   soothe one's anger

   show one's anger

   do something in anger

   You need to control your anger.

   • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:

     Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.

2. (obsolete) Pain or stinging.
   • 1660, Simon Patrick, Mensa mystica, published 1717, page 322:

     It heals the Wounds that Sin hath made; and takes away the Anger of the Sore; […]

   • 1679, William Temple, “An Essay upon the Cure of Gout by Moxa. […]”, in Miscellanea. […], London: […] A. M. and R. R. for Edw[ard] Gellibrand, […], →OCLC, page 209:

     I immediately made the Experiment, ſetting the Moxa where the firſt Violence of my Pain began, which was the Joint of the great Toe, and where the greateſt Anger and Soreneſs ſtill continued, [...]

anger (third-person singular simple present angers, present participle angering, simple past and past participle angered)

1. (transitive) To cause such a feeling of antagonism in.

   Synonyms: enrage, infuriate, annoy, vex, grill, displease, aggravate, irritate

   He who angers you conquers you.

   • 1911, Heinrich Heine, translated by John Payne, The Poetical Works of Heinrich Heine: Now First Completely Rendered into English Verse, in Accordance with the Original Forms, volume one, Villon Society, page 176:

     “Poetling, fret thyself not! / I will not one tittle imperil / Thy sorry cockboat; / Nor yet thy poor dear life will I harass / With over-hazardous tossings. / For thou, little poet, ne’er angeredst me; / Thou hast me no least little pinnacle harmed / Of Priamus’ sacrosanct stronghold; / Nor even the least little lash hast thou singed / Of the eye of my son Polyphemus; / And thee with her counsels protected hath ne’er / The Goddess of Wisdom, Pallas Athené.”

   • 2025 February 1, Tami Luhby, Eric Bradner and Rene Marsh, “Federal employees confused, angered by Trump’s offer to quit”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     President Donald Trump’s offer to most federal employees to resign now and be paid through September stunned the workers who received it – angering some, confusing many and raising questions about whether the offer is even legal.

2. (intransitive) To become angry.

   Synonyms: get angry (see angry for more), bristle, flare

   You anger too easily.

• “anger”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “anger”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• Agner, Negar, Regan, areng, grane, range, rangé, regna, renga

anger m

1. anger (strong feeling of displeasure)

Related to standard ankerias.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑŋːer/, [ˈɑ̝ŋːe̞r]
• Rhymes: -ɑŋːer
• Syllabification^(key): an‧ger
• Hyphenation^(key): an‧ger

anger (dialectal, Eastern Finnish)

1. synonym of ankerias (“eel”)

Related to standard angervo.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑŋːer/, [ˈɑ̝ŋːe̞r]
• Rhymes: -ɑŋːer
• Syllabification^(key): an‧ger
• Hyphenation^(key): an‧ger

anger (dialectal, Eastern Finnish)

1. synonym of angervo (“plant of the genus Filipendula”)

• “anger”, in Suomen murteiden sanakirja [Dictionary of Finnish Dialects]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, incomplete, continuously updated), Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten keskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2022, →ISSN.

Borrowed from Old Norse angr, from Proto-Germanic *angazaz.

• angre, angir, angyr, hanger, angur, aunger, angure

• IPA^(key): /ˈanɡər/

anger (plural angers)

1. Grief, painfulness, or discomfort; a feeling of pain or sadness.
2. A trouble, affliction, or vexation; something that inflicts pain or hardship.
3. Angriness, ire; the state of being angry, enraged, or wrathful.
4. Indignation, spitefulness; the feeling of being wronged or treated unfairly.
5. (rare) Irritableness; the state of being in a foul mood.

• angerly
• angren
• angry

• English: anger
• Scots: anger

• “anger, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 29 April 2019.

anger

1. alternative form of angren

From Old Norse angr.

anger m (definite singular angeren) (uncountable)

1. regret, remorse, contrition, repentance, penitence

• angre
• bondeanger

• “anger” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse angr.

anger m (definite singular angeren) (uncountable)

1. regret, remorse, contrition, repentance, penitence

• angre
• bondeanger

• “anger” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

anger

1. present indicative of ange

• genar, regna