Nuisance

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Nuisance

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Nov 06, 2013 11:35 pm

• nuisance •

Pronunciation: nyu-sêns • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Someone or something that is annoying, pestering. 2. (Law) Anything that interferes with the legal rights of others.

Notes: This word has an unusual adjective, nuisancy, as a nuisancy series of spam from the same rawhide company. It is rarely used, making today's Good Word almost a lexical orphan. The noun itself is used as an adjective much more frequently in phrases like nuisance call, nuisance tax, and nuisance suit.

In Play: Anything that annoys us is a nuisance: "Responding to all these letters is such a nuisance, and I don't even have an underling I can assign the annoyance to." People can be nuisances, too: "The children are such nuisances, always begging for candy and ice cream, but I love them all the same." The difference between a nuisance and an eccentric is how much money you have in the bank.

Word History: Today's Good Word came to English from Old French (where else?) nuisance "nuisance, pollution", the noun from nuire, nuis- "to harm". French inherited nuire from its ancestor, the Latin verb nocere "to injure, harm". Latin, in turn, inherited the word from Proto-Indo-European nek-/nok- "death, die", a word that went into the creation of several other interesting words that English borrowed. Noxious is but one; others include innocuous, innocent, and obnoxious. Greek used the E-form of the PIE word in producing necrosis "death of tissue". An interesting twist in the history of this root is how it went into the making of nectar, the drink of the Greek gods. How? It was originally a compound noun, made up of nek- "death" + ter- "overcome" = "(something that) overcomes death". (Albert Skiles is no nuisance at all, but a prolific contributor of suggestions as good as today's very, very Good Word.)
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MTC
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Re: Nuisance

Postby MTC » Thu Nov 07, 2013 10:13 am

Within the legal concept of nuisance mentioned by the good doc is the oxymoronic "attractive nuisance" discussed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractive ... e_doctrine

Nuisances can be attractive and unattractive at the same time.

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Slava
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Re: Nuisance

Postby Slava » Thu Nov 07, 2013 10:21 am

"Nek - Noc."
"Who's there?"
"Death. Die."
:|
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

MTC
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Re: Nuisance

Postby MTC » Thu Nov 07, 2013 6:49 pm

DEATH'S DOOR

"Nek - Noc."
"Who's there?"
"Death. Die."
"Die?Die?"
"My?My?"
"Lie.Lie."
"Why? Why?"
"Nigh? Nigh?"
"Fie!Fie!"
"Sigh. Sigh."
"Cry.Cry."
"Bye.Bye."

Grim, aren't we? Tomorrow a rainbow.

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Slava
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Re: Nuisance

Postby Slava » Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:07 pm

Gee, MTC, how did you manage to miss using the shortest rhyming poem in English?

How about, instead of your 4th entry, "Why? Why?", we use "Why I"? :)
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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Re: Nuisance

Postby LukeJavan8 » Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:48 pm

Dark discussion.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Slava
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Re: Nuisance

Postby Slava » Thu Nov 07, 2013 10:07 pm

I'll go along with that. So here's a question on a lighter note: Where did the "i" come from? :?:
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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