Pesky

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈpɛski/

Definitions

1. Creating irritation or frustration through its persistent nature
2. Causing minor irritation or difficulty through repeated or persistent actions
3. Having a tendency to provoke frustration by being persistently troublesome

Etymology: "Pesky" is probably an alteration of "pesty," itself a formation from "pest," the word for a nuisance or a plague-bearing creature that came into English from Old French and ultimately from Latin "pestis," meaning plague. The change from "-ty" to "-ky" is thought to parallel the way "nasty" has sometimes been altered to "nasky," a sound shift that gives the word its bouncier, slightly comic edge. So a word now used for a mildly annoying neighbor or a buzzing fly carries, at its root, the deadliest disease the Latin-speaking world had a name for. The shift in scale is the real story. "Pest" once named something truly dangerous, and the notion of a pest as a small, persistent annoyance developed over time, so that "pesky" describes irritation rather than harm. The suffix "-y" turns the noun into a descriptive adjective, meaning something that behaves like a pest.

Synonyms: annoying, irritating, bothersome, troublesome, vexatious

Antonyms: agreeable, pleasant, welcome