Nudniks

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An annoying person who constantly bothers others or disrupts their peace
2. someone who persistently nags or pesters others with trivial matters
3. a habitual irritant whose presence is often unwelcome and tiresome

Etymology: The plural "nudniks" is simply the regular plural of "nudnik", a Yiddish noun for a person who bores or pesters others. The surprise is how Slavic the word is. Its root, "nud-", comes from the same Slavic stock that gives Russian "nudnyj" and Polish "nudny", both meaning "boring", and that stock goes back to a Proto-Slavic verb meaning "to compel" and a noun meaning "need". So a word now used for a tiresome pest carries the sense of being pressed or forced, the same family of meaning that gives English "need" and "needy". The ending "-nik" is a Slavic agent suffix, the same one found in words like "beatnik", which entered English through Yiddish and then became a productive way to build new nouns. Yiddish speakers joined a Slavic root to this suffix, and the result describes someone who keeps pressing you, which is why the word still sounds like its own speaker's complaint.

Synonyms: nuisances, bothers, pests, annoyances, vexations

Antonyms: friends, allies, supporters, helpers, companions