The word "irritate" has been used in literature to capture both physical sensations and subtle emotional disturbances, serving as a versatile marker of disturbance and provocation. In some works, it conveys a sense of mounting anger or discomfort, as seen when characters are provoked to a point of internal turmoil or even physical reaction—for example, when a character’s words seem to "irritate him" in Dostoyevsky’s narrative [1] or when a minor annoyance prompts a character to abandon his work in Chekhov’s story [2]. Meanwhile, the term also functions metaphorically, as in Frazer’s description of substances that "irritate" a wound [3] or in Thackeray’s observation of the resentment seeded by old favors [4]. Instructions and warnings, such as those in Sunzi’s military advice [5, 6] or the caution not to "irritate him" in more personal settings [7, 8, 9, 10, 11], further illustrate its role in directing behavior and managing conflict. Across this diverse range of literary contexts—from the subtle social irritations found in Jane Austen’s "Emma" [12] to the more dramatic consequences seen in Dostoyevsky and Kipling—"irritate" emerges as a term that encapsulates both the minutiae and the grand gestures of human interaction.