empörte

Empörte is the simple past tense form (Präteritum) of the German verb empören, meaning to outrage or to provoke indignation. It indicates that a person or thing caused widespread or strong disapproval in the past. In written narration, empörte is used to describe past events that provoked public reaction, and its subject agrees with standard German conjugation.

In everyday spoken German, the past tense most often used for this meaning is the perfect form hat empört. The Präteritum empörte is therefore more common in literary writing, historical accounts, or reported speech, where a more narrative or formal register is desired. The verb can also appear in reflexive constructions, such as sich empören über etwas, meaning to-take-offense over something; in the past this becomes sich empörte über.

Related forms include empört, the adjective meaning outraged, as in er war empört (he was outraged). The noun Empörung denotes the act or feeling of outrage or indignation, and the infinitive form is empören.

Examples: Der Bericht empörte die Öffentlichkeit. (The report outraged the public.) Sie empörte sich über die Entscheidung. (She outraged herself, i.e., she was outraged by the decision.) In historical writing, one might encounter formulations like: Der Skandal empörte die Nation und führte zu Reformen.