tiresome

Etymology

It is formed from English tire + -some,^[2][3][4] like wearisome and meddlesome.^[2] The verb goes back to tiren, from Old English tēorian (“to fail, cease; to become weary, to weary”),^[5][3] whose earlier history is hard to trace because it has no cognates in the other Germanic languages.^[2][3] Watkins tentatively connects it with Proto-Indo-European *deu- (“to lack, be wanting”).^[3] The current form of the verb appears first in Scottish writers of the 15th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tedious and boring, especially from monotony: before 1513, in a poem by William Dunbar.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1500,^[3] Dictionary.com to 1490–1500^[4] and Merriam-Webster to about 1520.^[6]

Semantic evolution

A literal sense, causing physical fatigue, is recorded from 1598 to 1728;^[2] Etymonline calls it rare and obsolete,^[3] and the OED notes that it has merged into the main sense.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the word as wearisome, fatiguing, tedious.^[7] From 1798, in C. Smith's Young Philosopher, it also meant troublesome or annoying,^[2] a use the Shorter Oxford labels colloquial.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1513 – wearisome, tedious, boring.^[2]
• 1598 – physically tiring (obsolete by 1728).^[2][3]
• 1798 – troublesome, annoying.^[2][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Boring and tedious, especially through sameness or length; wearisome: a tiresome three-hour lecture.^[6][5][2]
2. (colloquial) Annoying or irksome: Her tiresome cousin kept interrupting.^[8][6][2]

Word family

• tiresomely
• tiresomeness

Related words

• tire
• tired

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press