A strong sense of displeasure, commonly mixed with hostility.
A strong sense of displeasure, commonly mixed with hostility — the broad, all-purpose name for how we react to a perceived wrong, threat, or frustration.
The plain base term of the family: it points to the reaction itself but, on its own, signals neither its source nor its degree, so every other word sits beneath it as a more specialized choice. Stronger and more hostile than the mild band (annoyance, irritation, vexation, pique, exasperation); steadier and more governable than rage or fury (which add a loss of self-command); without the moral spark of indignation or outrage; without the vengeful aim and old-fashioned ring of wrath; and hotter and more immediate than the cold, nursed grudges of resentment, bitterness, or spite.
From c. 1200, borrowed from Old Norse angr “distress, grief, affliction,” from Proto-Germanic *angaz, from PIE *angh- “tight, painfully constricted.” Cognate with German Angst; related to anguish and anxious. The early sense was affliction and constriction; the “rage” sense is attested by the early 14c.
Shifted from “grief, distress, affliction” (the original Old Norse sense) to “hostile attitude, ill will” (mid-13c.) and then to modern “rage” by the early 14c.; the older “distress” sense is now obsolete. No reliable recent-generation shift is sourced.