Nosy means far too curious about other people's private business. The neighbour whose curtain moves when you park.
The image is exact, since a nosy person puts their nose where it does not belong. It is an accusation but a light one, closer to teasing than to real anger, and children use it constantly. The fixed character is the nosy neighbour, and Britain has Nosy Parker as the proverbial name for one. The verb form is to nose about or nose around, and the spelling nosey is equally correct.
1adjectivenosyToo interested in other people's private affairs.
“Don't be nosy — it is none of your business.”
Also accepted in games: prying
Proto-Indo-European
*néh₂s-
Proto-West Germanic
*nosu
Old English
nosu
Middle English
nose
English
nose
English, today
nosy
Built from
From nose + -y. nose comes from Middle English nose, from Old English nosu, from Proto-West Germanic nosu, variant of nasō, old dual from Proto-Indo-European néh₂s- ~ nh₂es- (“nose, nostril”). See also stq Noose, West Frisian noas, Dutch neus, Swedish nos, Norwegian nos (“snout”), Low German Nääs, German Nase, Swedish näsa, Norwegian nese, Danish næse (“nose”); also Latin nāris (“nostril”), nāsus (“nose”), Lithuanian nósis, Russian нос, Sanskrit नासा (“nostrils”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA