Annoy

How to spell annoy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce annoy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does annoy mean?

1. verbTo irritate or trouble someone, making them mildly angry or impatient.

Annoy in a sentence

• Loud music from the flat upstairs can annoy the whole building.

• Constant interruptions during meetings tend to annoy the manager.

Where does annoy come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the Old French verb anoier (also spelled enoier), meaning 'to weary, vex or trouble', which English adopted in the 1200s. The French verb traces back to a Latin phrase, 'mihi in odio est', literally 'it is to me in hatred', where odium meant 'hatred' or 'a feeling of disgust'. Over time that whole phrase collapsed into a single verb, so the modern spelling preserves only a worn-down trace of the original 'in odio'. The very same Latin odium survives almost untouched in the English word 'odious', meaning hateful, and the noun 'noisome' is a close cousin too. Because the everyday meaning has softened from genuine hatred to mere irritation, the strong Latin origin is easy to forget, but it explains the unexpected double letters and the silent path the word travelled into English.

How the word is built

• an- (from Latin 'in odio': in hatred)
• -noy (the surviving fragment of that phrase)