The etymology of the word hangry doesn’t seem that complicated at first. After all, it’s portmanteau of hungry and angry. So, the word hangry would seem to describe the kind of anger a person feels when they’re hungry. What’s to wonder about?
The thing is, hangry doesn’t really refer to a kind of anger.
Anger always has an object, a target of its hostility. People are angry about something, or angry at someone.
To be hangry, on the other hand, is to feel cross without any external reason. The hangry are hangry simply because they have failed to take care of their own hunger, and have fallen out of balance as a result. Hangry people are well known for acting as if they are angry, without having any tangible cause for actual anger.
That’s why the word hangry was invented — as a means of explaining that people who seem angry aren’t actually angry. Anger requires a justification, but the identification of a provocation can be socially destructive. Being hangry, on the other hand, enables the avoidance of social conflict through the denial of angry feelings. When we say that we’re just hangry, we imply that there is no underlying problem, that our aggressive behavior is merely a glitch in biology that can be fixed with a little snack.
