angry (English)

Where does "angry" come from?

The English adjective 'angry' descends directly from Middle English 'angry'[1], formed by combining 'anger' with the suffix '-y'[2]. The underlying noun 'anger' was borrowed from Old Norse 'angr', meaning 'affliction, sorrow'[2][3]. This Old Norse term traces back to Proto-Germanic '*angazaz'[3][4], which itself derives from the Proto-Indo-European noun '*h₂énǵʰos'[6], meaning a tightening or constriction, rooted in the ancient verb '*h₂enǵʰ-' meaning to tighten[6][7]. Over time, the meaning shifted from an original sense of physical constriction, affliction, and sorrow into the modern emotional state of displaying or feeling anger.

Open questions

Evidence from Hittite suggests the earlier root form may be reconstructed as '*h₂emǵʰ-' rather than '*h₂enǵʰ-', which weakens proposed genetic relations to Proto-Uralic. [5]

Full etymology tree

angry (English), 'Displaying or feeling anger.'
- derived anger (Middle English), 'Grief, painfulness, or discomfort; a feeling of pain or sadness.'
  - borrowed angr (Old Norse), 'sorrow, resentment, distress'
    - derived *angazaz (Proto-Germanic), 'worry, grief, anxiety'
      - derived *h₂énǵʰos (Proto-Indo-European), 'narrowness'
        derived *h₂enǵʰ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to constrict, tighten, compress'
- suffix -y (Middle English), 'Designates an adjective, in many cases formed by being appended to a noun.'

Ancestors

angry (Middle English)

Descendants and derived words

a hungry man is an angry man (English)
angery (English)
Angries (English)
angrify (English)
angrily (English)
angriness (English)
angryable (English)
angry as a wet hen (English)
angry fruit salad (English)
angryphone (English)
angry white male (English)
angry white man (English)

Sources

Updated August 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris