Dander is an older term for what we today call dandruff, the scale that comes from our scalps and sometimes comes off in visible white flakes or dust.
Meaning of Idiom ‘Get Your Dander Up’
To get your (or one’s) dander up means to become angry or agitated; to lose one’s temper. It an also mean to cause someone to become angry, etc.
‘Dander up’ can also be used alone or with the word ‘have.’ For example:
“His dander is up because of the mess we made in the garage.”
“Both sides have their dander up and no one will budge in the negotiations.”
Sentence Examples
“That really gets my dander up. I work and work and all they want is more!”
“He always speaks to me in a patronizing tone. It really gets my dander up.”
“Don’t get your dander up. We can still go to dinner, just a bit later.”
“Nothing gets my dander up more than someone cutting in line in front of me.”
“Some guy almost ran me off on the freeway. Talk about getting your dander up!”
“You better not mess with old Forster. You get his dander up and there’s hell to pay.”
” Sheriff, now… now… now don’t get your dander up…” — Robin Hood (1973)
“Well, sir, they wouldn’t leave. My boys got their dander up. We deployed the whole division and went after them.” — Gettysburg (1993)
“‘We are meant for better things, you and I.’ And these days whenever I’m ready to belt someone who’s got my dander up, I hear him whisper those words in my ear.” — The War (1994)
“By george, big fella, you’ve got your dander up today, haven’t you?” — A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949)
“If you get his dander up, you’ll find yourself in a pine box. And you wouldn’t be the first one either.” — Band of Angels (1957)
“Once they’ve dug their heels in, there’s no budging them, and you don’t want to get between them when their danders are up.” — Outlander: Lallybroch (2015)
Origin
The idiom get one’s dander up (or get one’s dander raised) has been used in English since the early part of the 1800s.
The word dander (late-1700s) means ‘dandruff’ and it is often supposed that the idiom refers to inciting someone’s passion or anger to the point that the flakes arise from their head from the physical agitation, or from an actual physical confrontation or scuffle. This is one of several possible origins, although a convincing one. 1
Another story is that dander is another word for dunder. Dunder was a West Indian term for fermented cane juice used to make rum. The idiom may refer to the froth that rose from the fermentation. 2
It is also claimed that dander comes from the Dutch term for thunder, donder. It’s easy to associate anger with thunder. We could even imagine a similar idiom ‘made as thunder.’ A similar idiom is mad as a hornet.
Dander may still be used in some regions of the US to refer to dandruff, although it may be considered a fossil word. The idiom ‘get your dander up’ is also in danger of extinction.
Of these possible derivations, the dandruff connection seems the most convincing.
Below are some examples of the idiom being used in during the 19th century:
“I do my duty; and I raise the dander of my fellow critters, as I wish to serve…they rile up rough, along of my objecting to their selling Eden off too cheap.” — Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, 1843
“Wut’ll make ye act like freemen? Wut’ll git your dander riz?” — J. Russel Lowel, Bigelow Papers, 1848
“Don’t talk to me about daring to do this thing or t’other, or when my dander is up, it’s the very thing to urge me on.” — William Makepeace Thackeray, Pendennis, 1859
More Fossil Words
References
- Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of dander.” Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/dander. Accessed 25 September, 2024.
- Price, Steven D. Endangered Phrases: Intriguing Idioms Dangerously Close to Extinction. Skyhorse Pub, 2011.