noisy

Etymology

It is formed from English noise + -y.^[2][3][4][5] The noun is inherited from Middle English noise, borrowed from Anglo-Norman noise and Old French noise (“noise, tumult, quarrel”),^[2][6] probably from Latin nausea (“seasickness”);^[2][6] the OED suggests a sense development from seasickness through upset and malaise to disturbance and noise.^[2] Etymonline notes that others derive it from noxia (“harm, injury”), and Barnhart finds the derivation from nausea hard to accept in both sense and form.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Making, or given to making, a lot of noise; clamorous, turbulent: in 1675, in Wycherley's The Country-Wife.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective is late: Middle English had noiseful from the late 14th century.^[3] Dictionary.com and Etymonline date noisy to the late 17th century, later than the OED's 1675.^[7][3] A second sense, full of noise or attended with noise, appears in 1679, in Dryden's Troilus and Cressida,^[2] and Johnson (1755) gave the two senses "sounding loud" and "clamorous; turbulent", quoting Dryden.^[8] From 1725, in Isaac Watts, it was used without reference to sound, for showy or conspicuous, and later especially for gaudy or loud in colour.^[2][4] In science, from 1944, a noisy signal or device is one affected by random fluctuations or interference.^[2] In British underworld slang of 1889, noisy pegs were boots.^[9]

Timeline

• 1675 – making a lot of noise.^[2][4]
• 1679 – full of noise.^[2]
• 1725 – showy, conspicuous; later gaudy in colour.^[2]
• 1889 – noisy pegs, boots, in underworld slang.^[9]
• 1944 – science, affected by random interference.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Making a lot of noise, or tending to make it: The noisy children woke the baby.^[10][4][2]
2. Full of noise or marked by it: a noisy restaurant.^[10][4][2]
3. Showy or attracting attention, especially by bright colour; gaudy: a noisy shirt.^[4][2]
4. (science) Affected by random fluctuations or interference: a noisy signal.^[2]

Word family

• noisily
• noisiness
• unnoisy

Related words

• noise
• nausea
• noisome

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists noisy among words that can be confused with noisome, offensive or harmful, which is not related.^[7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins