Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #181: Irascitur, another deponent

The focus for today's lesson is another deponent verb: irascitur. In English we don't have a simple verb that conveys this same meaning; you have to say something like "become angry" or "get angry." Those English verbs are a little weird when you think about it, right? But those "become ___" and "get ___" phrases often correspond to Latin deponent verbs which are passive in form but active in meaning.

And do you remember the adjective iratus, "angry"...? You have seen that in several proverbs, including Iratum noli stimulare and Male irato ferrum committitur. That adjective is a participle formed from this verb: after a person irascitur, "gets angry," then they are "angry," iratus.

To get started, here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Numquam sapiens irascitur.
(A) wise (person) never gets-angry.
numquam SA-piens i-RAS-citur.

You know all the words in this saying! These words were written by the Roman politician and philosopher, Cicero.

For a saying about what does happen on that very rare occasions when a wise man gets angry, see #4 below.

2. Invidia tacite sed inimice irascitur.
Envy grows-angry silently but dangerously.
in-VI-dia TA-cite sed ini-MI-ce i-RAS-citur.

You see two adverbs in this saying, tacite and inimice, which come from words you have seen before. The adverb tacite, "silently," is related to the verb tacet. The word inimice, "like an enemy, dangerously," is formed from the adjective inimicus.
This is one of the sayings of the Latin writer, Pulilius the Syrian; you can find out more about him at Wikipedia.

3. Homo extra est corpus suum cum irascitur.
When (a) man gets-angry, (he) is outside his body.
homo extra est corpus suum cum i-RAS-citur.

This is a long saying, but you know all the words in this one too! The Latin phrase extra corpus suum, "outside his own body," is equivalent to the English phrase "beside himself." Have you ever thought about that phrase in English? It's kind of odd when you think about it, and seeing the Latin equivalent can help you to appreciate the oddity of the English cliche too.

This is another one of the sayings of Publilius Syrus.

4. Tarde sed graviter vir sapiens irascitur.
(A) wise man gets-angry slowly but seriously.
tarde sed GRA-viter vir sapiens i-RAS-citur.

This saying features another new adverb, graviter, "heavily, seriously," and it is from an adjective you know already, grave.

Yet another saying from Publilius Syrus. As you can see, he had a lot to say about anger! Unlike Cicero (see #1 above), Publilius acknowledges that a wise man can get angry, but not quickly; it takes a long time, tarde.

For a similar saying about a good-hearted person or good soul, bonus animus, see the next saying.

5. Bonus animus laesus gravius multo irascitur.
(A) good soul (when) outraged is-angered much more-deeply.
bonus A-nimus laesus GRA-vius multo i-RAS-citur.

You haven't seen the masculine adjective laesus, "injured, wounded, outraged," but you have seen the feminine form: laesa. It is masculine because it agrees with the subject of the sentence, animus.

This saying features the comparative form of the adverb graviter that you saw in the previous saying; this form, gravius, means "more heavily, more seriously, more deeply." It might look like a masculine adjective, but it's not: it's a neuter adjective being used as an adverb.

The word multo is the ablative form of the neuter adjective multum. It means "by far," and it is used with the comparative adverb, multo gravius, much more-deeply. (You'll learn more about this use of the ablative when we start working on the comparative forms of all the adjectives and adverbs.)

The idea is that a good-hearted person, when pushed far enough, experiences that anger more deeply. Compare a saying that you've seen before: Laesa saepius repugnat ovis.

Here's a recap: