exasperate
English edit
Etymology edit
From Latin exasperō; ex (“out of; thoroughly”) + asperō (“make rough”), from asper (“rough”).
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ɪɡˈzæsp(ə)ɹeɪt/
- (Received Pronunciation, also) IPA(key): /ɪɡˈzɑːspəɹeɪt/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -æspəɹeɪt
- Hyphenation: ex‧as‧per‧ate
Verb edit
exasperate (third-person singular simple present exasperates, present participle exasperating, simple past and past participle exasperated)
- (transitive) To tax the patience of; irk, frustrate, vex, provoke, annoy; to make angry.
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:
- And this report
Hath so exasperate [sic] the king that he
Prepares for some attempt of war.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.
- 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
- Beadle goes into various shops and parlours, examining the inhabitants; always shutting the door first, and by exclusion, delay, and general idiotcy, exasperating the public.
- 1987 January 5, “Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino”, in Time:
- [S]he exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.
- 2007 June 4, “Loyal Mail”, in Times Online, UK, retrieved 7 October 2010:
- News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.
Translations edit
frustrate, vex, annoy
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Adjective edit
exasperate (comparative more exasperate, superlative most exasperate)
- (obsolete) exasperated; embittered.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
- Thersites. Do I curse thee?
Patroclus. Why no, you ruinous butt, you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no.
Thersites. No! why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk […]
- 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Fourth Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 177:
- Like swallows which the exasperate dying year
Sets spinning […]
Related terms edit
See also edit
References edit
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “exasperate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Ido edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
exasperate
- adverbial present passive participle of exasperar
Latin edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ek.sas.peˈraː.te/, [ɛks̠äs̠pɛˈräːt̪ɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ek.sas.peˈra.te/, [eɡzäspeˈräːt̪e]
Verb edit
exasperāte
Spanish edit
Verb edit
exasperate
- second-person singular voseo imperative of exasperar combined with te