different between irritation vs irritability

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French irritation, from Latin irr?t?ti?, from irr?t?re, present active infinitive of irr?t? (“I excite”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?????te???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

irritation (countable and uncountable, plural irritations)

1. The act of irritating or annoying

   What irritation causes you to be so moody?

2. The state of being irritated
3. The act of exciting, or the condition of being excited to action, by stimulation; -- as, the condition of an organ of sense, when its nerve is affected by some external body; especially, the act of exciting muscle fibers to contraction, by artificial stimulation; as, the irritation of a motor nerve by electricity; also, the condition of a muscle and nerve, under such stimulation.
4. A condition of morbid excitability or oversensitiveness of an organ or part of the body; a state in which the application of ordinary stimuli produces pain or excessive or vitiated action.

Derived terms

Related terms

• irritate

Translations

Further reading

• irritation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• irritation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Latin irr?t?ti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i.?i.ta.sj??/
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophone: irritations

Noun

irritation f (plural irritations)

1. irritation (all senses)

Related terms

• irriter

Further reading

• “irritation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From Latin irritabilit?s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????t??b?l?ti/

Noun

irritability (countable and uncountable, plural irritabilities)

1. The state or quality of being irritable; quick excitability

   irritability of temper

2. (physiology) A natural susceptibility, characteristic of all living organisms, tissues, and cells, to the influence of certain stimuli, response being manifested in a variety of ways.
   • 1836, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Specimens of the Table Talk

     There is growth only in plants; but there is irritability, or, a better word, instinctivity, in insects.

   • 1800, Erasmus Darwin, Phytologia, Or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening

     We find a renitency in ourselves to ascribe life and irritability to the cold and motionless fibres of plants.

3. (medicine) A condition of morbid excitability of an organ or part of the body; undue susceptibility to the influence of stimuli.

Synonyms

• (state of being irritable): petulance, fretfulness

Translations

References

• irritability in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• irritability in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.