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irascible

UK/ɪˈɹæs.ɪ.bəl/US/ɪˈɹæs.ɪ.bəl/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,461 of 15,258neutralformal · an editor’s judgement

Irascible means very easily made angry. The fuse is short and everybody around knows exactly how short.

It describes a settled temperament rather than a bad afternoon, which is what separates it from irritated. It is a formal and slightly literary word, and it turns up most often describing older men in novels, often affectionately. The related noun is irascibility. Its close relatives are irritable, which is milder and commoner, and choleric, which comes from the old theory of the four humours.

Definitions of irascible

  1. 1adjectiveirascibleEasily provoked to anger.C2

    “He was an irascible old man who quarrelled with everyone.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    īrāscibilis

  2. Old French

    irascible

  3. English, today

    irascible

From Middle English -, from Old French irascible, from Latin īrāscibilis, from Latin irascor (“to be angry, enraged”) + -bilis. See also -ible.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 16 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

irascible in the wild

  • Mulrooney, the kind-hearted lumber tycoon of Irish descent, and as the irascible 943-year-old gnome Knobby.

    The Gnome-Mobile

  • The character is usually portrayed as maintaining high ethical and strict journalistic standards, and is an archetypal image of the tough, irascible, but fair-minded boss.

    Perry White

  • As Sharky attempts to stay off the bottle during the holidays, he contends with the hard-drinking, irascible Richard and his own haunted conscience.

    The Seafarer (play)

  • Rounding out the regular supporting cast, character actor Jonathan Hale played Dagwood's irascible boss, J.C.

    Blondie (film series)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.