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anger

n.
US //ˈæŋɡɝ// UK //ˈæŋɡɐ// anger
  1. 1 the feeling of being mad (n.)
    B1 Intermediate

    a strong, hot feeling you have when you think something is unfair or when someone treats you badly.

    a strong emotion of displeasure or hostility triggered by perceived provocation or injustice.

    Example

    He struggled to hide his anger when he found out they had lied to him.

    Example

    The public's anger over the new tax laws manifested in a series of peaceful but firm protests across the capital.

    Pitfall
    He had a lot of anger to his boss.
    He felt a lot of anger toward his boss.

    Use 'toward' or 'at' to show who the anger is directed at.

Origin

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”. 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.

Word family
Idioms1 entry

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