anger: [12] The original notion contained in this word was of ‘distress’ or ‘affliction’; ‘rage’ did not begin to enter the picture until the 13th century. English acquired it from Old Norse angr ‘grief’, and it is connected with a group of words which contain connotations of ‘constriction’: German and Dutch eng (and Old English enge) mean ‘narrow’, Greek ánkhein meant ‘squeeze, strangle’ (English gets angina from it), and Latin angustus (source of English anguish) also meant ‘narrow’. All these forms point back to an Indo-European base *angg- ‘narrow’. => angina, anguish
c. 1200, "to irritate, annoy, provoke," from Old Norse angra "to grieve, vex, distress; to be vexed at, take offense with," from Proto-Germanic *angus (cognates: Old English enge "narrow, painful," Middle Dutch enghe, Gothic aggwus "narrow"), from PIE root *angh- "tight, painfully constricted, painful" (cognates: Sanskrit amhu- "narrow," amhah "anguish;" Armenian anjuk "narrow;" Lithuanian ankstas "narrow;" Greek ankhein "to squeeze," ankhone "a strangling;" Latin angere "to throttle, torment;" Old Irish cum-ang "straitness, want"). In Middle English, also of physical pain. Meaning "excite to wrath, make angry" is from late 14c. Related: Angered; angering.
mid-13c., "distress, suffering; anguish, agony," also "hostile attitude, ill will, surliness," from Old Norse angr "distress, grief. sorrow, affliction," from the same root as anger (v.). Sense of "rage, wrath" is early 14c. Old Norse also had angr-gapi "rash, foolish person;" angr-lauss "free from care;" angr-lyndi "sadness, low spirits."
