Etymology First attested in 1534; borrowed from Latin exasperātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin exasperō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ex (“out of; thoroughly”) + asperō (“to make rough”), from asper (“rough”). Participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
1
To tax the patience of; irk, frustrate, vex, provoke, annoy; to make angry.
And this report Hath so exasperate [sic] the king that he Prepares for some attempt of war.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:
The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
3 more examples
Beadle goes into various shops and parlours, examining the inhabitants; always shutting the door first, and by exclusion, delay, and general idiotcy, exasperating the public.1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
[S]he exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.1987 January 5, “Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino”, in Time:
News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.2007 June 4, “Loyal Mail”, in Times Online, UK, retrieved 07 Oct 2010:
Etymology First attested in 1534; borrowed from Latin exasperātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin exasperō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ex (“out of; thoroughly”) + asperō (“to make rough”), from asper (“rough”). Participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
And this report Hath ſo exaſperate their King, that hee Prepares for ſome attempt of Warre.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi], page 143:
Thersites. Do I curse thee? Patroclus. Why no, you ruinous butt, you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no. Thersites. No! why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk […]c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
Like swallows which the exasperate dying year Sets spinning […]1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Fourth Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 177:
Etymology A pun on the usual sense of exasperate (to annoy) and aspirate.
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UK, Humorous, Obsolete, Slang To overaspirate the letter h, or to aspirate it whenever it begins a word, once a common form of hypercorrection.
quoted (from Punch magazine) in 2005, David Crystal, The Stories of English COCKNEY HOBSERVATION. — Cockneys are not the only people who drop or exasperate the 'h's.' It is done by common people in the provinces, and you may laugh at them for it.