Is おくれ interchangeable with くれ?


Suppose a boss is telling his/her subordinates not to be angry by saying 怒らないで
**おくれ** よ。

What is the meaning of おくれ in this context? And is it interchangeable with the
sentence "怒らないで **くれ** よ。" ?




> 「Verb in て/で Form + **お** くれ」

is rarely used in real life these days. That is unless there are regions where
it is still used frequently that I am not aware of.

I have lived half of my life in Tokyo and the other half in Nagoya, but I
cannot say that I have heard 「～～て/で + **お** くれ」 with any kind of consistency
around those two cities.

Where do I see/hear it? Mostly in fiction, to be honest. Children's stories,
song lyrics, period dramas, etc. Every single native speaker would remember
hearing it as a kid said by older characters in children's stories.

The above is why it is difficult to answer your question "Are おくれ and くれ
interchangeable?" In meaning, yes, certainly, but we just do not use the
former. We mostly just use the latter (or the politer form 「ください」).

As far as pure meaning, however, the two sentences below mean the same thing:

> 「[怒]{おこ}らないで **お** くれよ。」
>
> 「怒らないでくれよ。」
>
> = "Don't get angry!"

