Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dander.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
How did "dander" acquire its "temper" sense? Etymologists have come up with a few possibilities, but nothing is known for sure. Some experts have proposed, tongue-in-cheek, that the meaning stems from the image of an angry person tearing out his or her hair by the fistful, scattering dandruff in the process. Some think it may come from a West Indian word dander, which refers to a kind of ferment and suggests "rising" anger (in English, "ferment" can mean either "an agent capable of causing fermentation" or "a state of unrest or excitement"). Yet another proposed possibility is that the anger sense was imported to America by early Dutch colonists and is from their phrase op donderen, meaning "to burst into a sudden rage."
First Known Use: 1786
in the meaning defined at sense 1
See Words from the same yearWhat made you want to look up dander? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
Name More Food!
Test your vocabulary with our 10-question quiz!
TAKE THE QUIZ
Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.
TAKE THE QUIZ
Test your knowledge of food vocabulary!
Take the quiz
Is that your picture under "Largest Vocabulary"?
Take the quiz
Test your vocabulary with our 10-question quiz!
Take the quiz
Build a chain of words by adding one letter at a time.
Play the game
