Etymologically
Log in

annoyance

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:42. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /əˈnɔɪ.əns/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English anoiaunce,[2][3] borrowed from Old French anoiance,[4][5][6][3] also enoiance,[7][3] which meant boredom or weariness in the 12th century and irritation from the 14th.[4] It is formed from anoier (“to trouble, bore, irritate”), the source of annoy, and the suffix -ance.[4][3][5] The verb comes from Vulgar Latin *inodiō (“to make odious”), from the phrase Latin in odiō (“in hatred, odious”), from odium (“hatred”).[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of annoying or harming, and a thing that troubles someone: both in Chaucer's Parson's Tale (about 1390), which speaks of suffering the annoyances and wrongs that men do.[4][2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, as "vexation, trouble".[7]

Semantic evolution

Before annoyance was borrowed, English used the noun annoy (about 1200) for a feeling of displeasure.[7] The sense "the state of being annoyed", now the main one, is recorded from 1502, and "a person or thing that annoys" from the start.[4][7][5] The word was once stronger: in older use an annoyance could be something harmful to the public, a nuisance in the legal sense,[4] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "that which annoys; that which hurts", quoting Shakespeare's King John.[9] From 1745 an annoyance jury in Westminster examined public nuisances.[4] The action sense, the act of annoying someone, is now rare.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1390 – the act of annoying or harming; a thing that annoys.[4][2]
  • 1502 – the state or feeling of being annoyed.[4] Etymonline dates this sense to about 1500.[7]
  • 1745 – annoyance jury, a Westminster jury on public nuisances.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The feeling of being annoyed; irritation or mild anger: She could not hide her annoyance at the delay.[10][3][4]
  2. A person or thing that annoys; a nuisance: The barking dog next door was a constant annoyance.[10][3][4]
  3. The act of annoying someone; now rare.[4][10][3]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins