- Today's Word
Irascible
[ih-RASS-uh-bul]
Definition
- (adjective) Someone who is easily angered or prone to outbursts of temper. It refers to a person who is irritable, quick-tempered, and easily provoked to anger.
Example
The irascible old man on the corner was known for shouting at kids who dared to step on his perfectly manicured lawn.
Fun Fact
The word “irascible” comes from the Latin word “irascibilis,” which is derived from “irasci” meaning “to be angry.” It entered the English language in the late 16th century. Interestingly, it shares its root with the word “ire,” meaning anger or wrath. In medieval times, irascibility was considered one of the seven deadly sins, associated with wrath. Today, while it’s not considered a sin, being irascible is generally seen as an undesirable personality trait. The word’s survival in modern English showcases our enduring need to describe complex emotional states with precision and color.
(adjective) Having a sleepy, drowsy quality; inducing or characterized by a state of near-sleep or heavy lethargy.
The somnolent afternoon stretched on without purpose — the heat too heavy, the air too still, the world too quiet for anything as ambitious as a decision.
Somnolent derives from the Latin somnolentus, meaning “sleepy,” rooted in somnus — “sleep.” The same root gives us insomnia, somnambulism — sleepwalking — and Somnus, the Roman god of sleep whose Greek equivalent Hypnos gave us hypnosis. It entered English in the 15th century, used in medical contexts to describe a pathological heaviness of sleep before expanding into its broader sense of anything drowsy, slow, and pleasantly difficult to resist.