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Origin and history of wroth

wroth(adj.)

Middle English, from Old English wrað "angry, irate" (literally "tormented, twisted"), from Proto-Germanic *wraith- (source also of Old Frisian wreth "evil," Old Saxon wred, Middle Dutch wret, Dutch wreed "cruel," Old High German reid, Old Norse reiðr "angry, offended"), whish is reconstructed in Watkins to be from *wreit-, from PIE root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend."

Related: Wrothly; wrothful; wrothy. It was apparently rare or obsolete from early 16c. to mid-19c. but has somewhat revived since, especially in dignified writing.

To wax wroth "grow irate" is by late 15c.

Secretary: "The Dean is furious. He's waxing wroth."
Quincy Adams Wagstaf [Groucho]: "Is Roth out there too? Tell Roth to wax the Dean for a while."
["Horse Feathers," 1932]

Entries linking to wroth

wrath(n.)

Middle English wratthe, "anger, fury, hostility, animosity," from Old English wræððu "vehement anger" (especially of a deity, "God's righteous ire"), from wrað "angry" (see wroth) + -þu, from Proto-Germanic -itho (as in strength, width etc.; see -th (2)).

It is the noun companion to wroth, "with shortening before double consonant" [Middle English Compendium]. The phrase wrath of God is in Malory (late 15c.); day of wrath (mid-14c.) is Biblical. Wrathing (n.) was "action of arousing or provoking someone's anger" (c. 1300).

*wer-(2)

Proto-Indo-European root forming words meaning "to turn, bend."

It might form all or part of: adverse; anniversary; avert; awry; controversy; converge; converse (adj.) "exact opposite;" convert; diverge; divert; evert; extroversion; extrovert; gaiter; introrse; introvert; invert; inward; malversation; obverse; peevish; pervert; prose; raphe; reverberate; revert; rhabdomancy; rhapsody; rhombus; ribald; sinistrorse; stalwart; subvert; tergiversate; transverse; universe; verbena; verge (v.1) "tend, incline;" vermeil; vermicelli; vermicular; vermiform; vermin; versatile; verse (n.) "poetry;" version; verst; versus; vertebra; vertex; vertigo; vervain; vortex; -ward; warp; weird; worm; worry; worth (adj.) "significant, valuable, of value;" worth (v.) "to come to be;" wrangle; wrap; wrath; wreath; wrench; wrest; wrestle; wriggle; wring; wrinkle; wrist; writhe; wrong; wroth; wry.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit vartate "turns round, rolls;" Avestan varet- "to turn;" Hittite hurki- "wheel;" Greek rhatane "stirrer, ladle;" Latin vertere (frequentative versare) "to turn, turn back, be turned; convert, transform, translate; be changed," versus "turned toward or against;" Old Church Slavonic vrŭteti "to turn, roll," Russian vreteno "spindle, distaff;" Lithuanian verčiu, versti "to turn;" German werden, Old English weorðan "to become;" Old English -weard "toward," originally "turned toward," weorthan "to befall," wyrd "fate, destiny," literally "what befalls one;" Welsh gwerthyd "spindle, distaff;" Old Irish frith "against."

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