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Thursday March 25, 2010

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irascible [ih-RASS-uh-buhl]

adjective

1. Prone to anger; easily provoked or inflamed to anger; irritable; choleric.

• "I don't know how widely the film will be seen," said Knopf's editor in chief, Sonny Mehta. "I hope widely, because it's a good film and wonderful for the book. They are building exponentially, and the anticipation for the third volume is really quite acute, because everyone knows it's available in England. People are getting a little bit irascible about it. So the timing of the film could not be better."
  John Anderson, "From Denmark, Hacker Punk And Hit in Tow", New York Times, Mar 14, 2010
• "You can't help who you fall in love with and that happens all the time," Cooper said. "She falls in love with his honesty and irascible charm. People fall in love with performers all the time. And he also has a face like a Greek god."
  Hector Saldana, "'Crazy Heart' is like a country song", San Antonio Express-News, Mar 7, 2010
• The train was under the command of an irascible old plainsman who had served out his apprenticeship in the Kansas border war, and whose name was Charity Joe, which, considering his avaricious disposition, was the wrong handle on the wrong man.
  Edward L. Wheeler Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road (1877)

Origin of the Word

Irascible, approximately 1400, derives from French irascible, from Late Latin irascibilis, from Latin irasci "grow angry," from ira "anger."