Other forms: nuisances
A nuisance is something that keeps bothering you — not a disaster, just a steady, low-level annoyance. Wasps at a picnic, a dripping tap, the neighbour's car alarm at six in the morning.
It works for people as well: a child who will not stop asking is a nuisance, and you make a nuisance of yourself by pestering the staff. You also use it for the trouble itself — 'what a nuisance', 'it's a nuisance having to go back'. Lawyers keep a strict version, where a nuisance is something that interferes with other people's use of their land or with a public right, which is why councils send letters about noise nuisance. Say it NEW-sns with the stress at the front; the spelling invites a French pronunciation it never gets. Something is a nuisance TO you.
1nounnuisanceA person or thing that keeps causing annoyance.
“The pigeons on the balcony are becoming a real nuisance.”
synonyms: pest, bother
2nouninconvenienceThe annoyance or inconvenience itself.
“It's a nuisance, but we'll have to start the whole form again.”
synonyms: inconvenience, hassle
3nounlawIn law, an act or condition that interferes with someone's use of their property or with a public right.
“The council served a noise nuisance notice on the club.”
nuisance is an annoyance.
Nuisance came through Anglo-Norman nusaunce and Old French nuisance from nuisir, 'to harm', and behind that Latin noceō. The root is harm, not irritation — the same Latin sits inside innocent, the one who does no harm. What was injury has worn down over the centuries into a wasp at a picnic.
Proto-Indo-European
*neḱ-
Latin
noceō
Old French
nuisance
Anglo-Norman
nusaunce
Middle English
noysaunce
English, today
nuisance
Built from
From Middle English noysaunce, from Anglo-Norman nusaunce, nussance and Old French nuisance, from nuisir (“to harm”), from Latin noceō. a doublet of nocence and nocency.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA