Anger, n.
Etymology: [OE. anger, angre, affliction, anger, fr. Icel. angr affliction, sorrow; akin to Dan. anger regret, Swed. ånger regret, AS. ange oppressed, sad, L. angor a strangling, anguish, angere to strangle, Gr. amhas pain, and to. anguish, anxious, quinsy, and perh. awe, ugly. The word seems to have orig. meant to choke, squeeze.
1. Trouble; vexation; also, physical pain or smart of a sore, etc. [Obs.] I made the experiment, setting the moxa where . . . the greatest anger and soreness still continued. Temple.
2. A strong passion or emotion of displeasure or antagonism, excited by a real or supposed injury or insult to one's self or others, or by the intent to do such injury. Anger is like A full hot horse, who being allowed his way, Self- mettle tires him. Shak.
Syn. -- Resentment; wrath; rage; fury; passion; ire gall; choler; indignation; displeasure; vexation; grudge; spleen. -- Anger, Indignation, Resentment, Wrath, Ire, Rage, Fury. Anger is a feeling of keen displeasure (usually with a desire to punish) for what we regard as wrong toward ourselves or others. It may be excessive or misplaced, but is not necessarily criminal. Indignation is a generous outburst of anger in view of things which are indigna, or unworthy to be done, involving what is mean, cruel, flagitious, etc., in character or conduct. Resentment is often a moody feeling, leading one to brood over his supposed personal wrongs with a deep and lasting anger. See Resentment. Wrath and ire (the last poetical) express the feelings of one who is bitterly provoked. Rage is a vehement ebullition of anger; and fury is an excess of rage, amounting almost to madness. Warmth of constitution often gives rise to anger; a high sense of honor creates indignation at crime; a man of quick sensibilities is apt to cherish resentment; the wrath and ire of men are often connected with a haughty and vindictive spirit; rage and fury are distempers of the soul to be regarded only with abhorrence.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Anger, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Angered; p. pr. & vb. n. Angering.]
1. To make painful; to cause to smart; to inflame. [Obs.] He . . . angereth malign ulcers. Bacon.
2. To excite to anger; to enrage; to provoke. Taxes and impositions . . . which rather angered than grieved the people. Clarendon.
Shades of meaning
Displeasure is the mildest and most general word. Choler and ire, now rare except in poetic or highly rhetorical language, denote a still, and the latter a persistent, anger. Temper used alone in the sense of anger is colloquial, tho we may correctly say a hot temper, a fiery temper, etc. Passion, tho a word of far wider application, may, in the singular, be employed to denote anger; "did put me in a towering passion," SHAKESPEARE Hamlet act v, sc. 2. Anger is violent and vindictive emotion, which is sharp, sudden, and, like all violent passions, necessarily brief. Resentment (a feeling back or feeling over again) is persistent, the bitter brooding over injuries. Exasperation, a roughening, is a hot, superficial intensity of anger, demanding instant expression. Rage drives one beyond the bounds of prudence or discretion; fury is stronger yet, and sweeps one away into uncontrollable violence. Anger is personal and usually selfish, aroused by real or supposed wrong to oneself, and directed specifically and intensely against the person who is viewed as blameworthy. Indignation is impersonal and unselfish displeasure at unworthy acts (L. indigna), i. e., at wrong as wrong. Pure indignation is not followed by regret, and needs no repentance; it is also more self-controlled than anger. Anger is commonly a sin; indignation is often a duty. Wrath is deep and perhaps vengeful displeasure, as when the people of Nazareth were "filled with wrath" at the plain words of Jesus (Luke iv, 28); it may, however, simply express the culmination of righteous indignation without malice in a pure being; as, the wrath of God. Impatience, fretfulness, irritation, peevishness, pettishness, petulance, and vexation express the slighter forms of anger. Irritation, petulance, and vexation are temporary and for immediate cause. Fretfulness, pettishness, and peevishness are chronic states finding in any petty matter an occasion for their exercise. Compare acrimony; enmity; hatred.
Prepositions
Anger at the insult prompted the reply. Anger toward the offender exaggerates the offense.