nuisance (n.)

c. 1400, "injury, hurt, harm," from Anglo-French nusaunce, Old French nuisance "harm, wrong, damage," from past-participle stem of nuire "to harm," from Latin nocere "to hurt" (from PIE root *nek- (1) "death"). Sense has softened over time, to "anything obnoxious to a community" (bad smells, pests, eyesores), 1660s, then "source of annoyance, something personally disagreeable" (1831). Applied to persons from 1690s. As an adjective by 1889; the older adjective nuisant was always rare and now is obsolete.

also from c. 1400

Entries linking to nuisance

*nek- (1)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "death." It forms all or part of: innocent; innocuous; internecine; necro-; necropolis; necrosis; necromancy; nectar; nectarine; nociceptive; nocuous; noxious; nuisance; obnoxious; pernicious.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit nasyati "disappears, perishes," Avestan nasyeiti "disappears," nasu- "corpse," Old Persian vi-nathayatiy "he injures;" Greek nekros "corpse;" Latin nex, genitive necis "violent death, murder" (as opposed to mors), nocere "to harm, hurt," noxius "harmful;" Greek nekus "dead" (adj.), nekros "dead body, corpse;" Old Irish ec, Breton ankou, Welsh angeu "death."

Trends of nuisance

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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neck

"that part of an animal body between the head and the trunk and which connects those parts," Middle English nekke, from Old English hnecca "neck, nape, back of the neck" (a fairly rare word) from Proto-Germanic *hnekk- "the nape of the neck" (source also of Old Frisian hnekka, Mi

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updated on July 16, 2019

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Dictionary entries near nuisance

nudity

nudnik

nuff

nugatory

nugget

nuisance

nuke

null

nullification

nullifidian

nullify