Obnoxiousness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The attribute of being intensely disagreeable and irritating
2. A state characterized by provoking strong dislike and discomfort in others
3. The quality of causing strong irritation or offense through behavior or character

Etymology: Obnoxiousness is simply obnoxious with the suffix "-ness" added, and the adjective itself has a more striking history than the noun. "Obnoxious" comes from the Latin "obnoxiosus," built from "obnoxius," meaning "liable to harm" or "exposed to," which combines "ob-" (toward or against) with "noxa," meaning "harm" or "injury." The Latin sense was originally about being subject to something, or answerable for a fault, rather than being annoying. English took the word in the sixteenth century with meanings such as "liable" or "subject to," and only later did it come to mean "exposed to offence" and then the offensive, objectionable quality we use today. The suffix "-ness" is an old Germanic formation that English has used for centuries to turn adjectives into nouns of quality, so "obnoxiousness" names the state of being obnoxious. Its ancestry runs back through Old English "-nes" to Proto-Germanic roots, and the pairing is ordinary in English, which is why the noun needs no special explanation.

Synonyms: disgust, offensiveness

Antonyms: pleasantness, agreeableness