Dander refers to dandruff or minute scales from hair/feathers/skin, and also to anger or temper.
Dander refers to dandruff or minute scales from hair/feathers/skin, and also to anger or temper.
| Front | dander \DAN-der\ |
|---|---|
| Back | noun 1. Dandruff; specifically. minute scales from hair, feathers, or skin that may be allergenic. 2. Anger, temper [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."] "That sort of arrogance really gets my dander up!" |
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