Nuisance

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈnjuː.səns/

Definitions

1. Something or someone that causes annoyance, inconvenience, or minor trouble
2. A source of irritation or disruption that produces difficulties or disturbances in daily activities
3. An entity that elicits annoyance, interferes with comfort, or creates obstacles in various contexts

Etymology: The word carries a legal past that its modern sense has almost entirely lost. In Anglo-Norman and Old French, "nuisance" was a harm or injury, and in English law it still names an act or condition that interferes with another person's use or enjoyment of their property, such as a smell drifting over a neighbour's garden. The annoyance we now mean, a pest or a bother, is the milder descendant of that courtroom meaning. The word came into English in Middle English as "noysaunce," borrowed through Anglo-Norman "nusaunce" and "nussance" from Old French "nuisance." Its root is the verb "nuisir," meaning "to harm," which descends from Latin "nocēre," "to hurt." That same Latin verb lies behind "nocence" and "nocency," which entered English by a separate route and are doublets of this word, so they share its ancestry while sounding and meaning quite different things.

Synonyms: annoyance, bother, inconvenience, irritation, trouble

Antonyms: blessing, benefit, advantage, help, comfort