obnoxious

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Unjustly disagreeable, argumentative or objectionable; brazenly rude.

   He was an especially obnoxious and detestable specimen of a man.

2. 2
   adj

   Exposed or vulnerable to something, especially harm or injury.

   Anyone found on the land was obnoxious to a heavy fine.

3. 3
   adj

   Causing harm or injury; harmful, hurtful, injurious.

   The damp air was once thought obnoxious to good health.

4. 4
   adj

   Deserving of blame or punishment; blameworthy, guilty.

   The officer was obnoxious to blame for the failed mission.

Simplified etymology

Obnoxious, recorded since the late 16th century, belongs to the Latin word family of nocere, “to hurt or injure.” Its Latin prefix ob- carries the sense “towards.”

PIE word *h₁epi Learned borrowing from Latin obnoxiōsus (“subject to someone, under someone’s authority”) + English -ous (suffix denoting the presence of a quality in any degree, typically an abundance). Obnoxiōsus is derived from obnoxius (“guilty, punishable; subject to someone, under someone’s authority”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; overly; prone to’, forming adjectives from nouns).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary