A feeling of anger, resentment, or offense; a state of indignation, often expressed in the phrase 'in high dudgeon.'
The etymology is complex: it originally meant the wooden handle or stock of a dagger or bagpipe (from Middle English dudgeon, possibly from Germanic roots). The shift to mean anger occurred around the 16th century; scholars debate whether it arose metaphorically from the wooden handle's hardness or from association with weapons.
This word performs an amazing etymological magic trick—it genuinely meant a piece of wood, but by Shakespeare's time it meant pure rage, and nobody's entirely sure how that happened. It's like the word itself got angry and changed!
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