Words that express annoyance and disgust

Question 1

Gadfly

Answer 1

A gadfly is an irritating person, a nuisance who will often ask too many questions or lob lots of criticisms in order to get his or her way.

Gadfly can also refer to an actual fly. The prefix gad is an old word for “spike” or “pointed stick” which can be thought of, in this case, as similar to a stinger. So if your office mate is continuously buzzing around your desk with stinging comments, call him a gadfly and try to shoo him back to his own desk.

Question 2

Querulous

Answer 2

Querulous can be used to describe a person or his or her manner or actions. For example: “Her normally positive teenage daughter became querulous when she stayed up too late, complaining about her teachers, her social life, and her siblings.

Use peevish to describe people who complain about petty or trivial things. Use petulant to describe behavior like that of a spoiled child. Use the verb carp to emphasize particularly mean-spirited, nasty criticizing or nitpicking.

Querulous comes from the Latin word queror, meaning “to complain.” The related words quarrel and quarrelsome are derived from this same Latin word.
To remember querulous, make a connection to someone you know who whines constantly. If you can’t think of someone in your personal life, picture the most famous querulous, complaining Oscar the Grouch

Question 3

Maudlin

Answer 3

Maudlin is derived from an alteration of the name Mary Magdalene, one of the most prominent women described in the New Testament. In the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was often depicted in paintings as a weeping, repentant sinner. This tearful image led to the current maudlin—overly sentimental

Synonyms and related words for maudlin and sentimental include schmaltzy, gushing, drippy, and hokey

Question 4

Mawkish

Answer 4

Excessively and objectionably sentimental.

Mawkish is another synonym for maudlin, but there is an important distinction in meaning between these two words. As described in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms, is an adjective that emphasizes the sickening nature of the sentiment. In other words, mawkish sentiment is often disgusting and sickening because it’s so incredibly insincere or over the top.
We can remember the sickening, disgusting connotation of mawkishfrom its etymology. Mawkish comes from the Middle English word mawke, which means “maggot.”

Question 5

Treacle

Answer 5

Cloying, sickly-sweet speech or sentiment.

Treacle refers to excessively sweet sentiment, as seen in overly romantic movies or grocery-store greeting cards. Treacle can also refer to molasses or golden syrup, which is a thick, sweet mixture of molasses, corn syrup, and sugar used in cooking.
The adjective form of treacle is treacly. Synonyms and related words include cloying and saccharine

Question 6

Scabrous

Answer 6

1. Scabby, blotchy, and scaly. 2. Rough to the touch. 3. Indecent, shocking, scandalous.

Although scabrous carries all three meanings listed above, it’s often used to describe indecent, risqué, and obscene language and behavior. For example: “The intimate details of the late celebrity’s scabrous diary shocked his family and ignited a scandal.” Synonyms and related words for this sense of scabrous include salacious, libidinous, and lascivious.

Scabrous originally came from the Latin adjective scaber, meaning “rough, scaly”; this word, in turn, was related to the Latin verb scabo, meaning “to scratch or scrape.” Not surprisingly, scabrous is also related to scab and scabies.

Question 7

Fulsome

Answer 7

1. Excessively or insincerely lavish. 2. Abundant.

Compliments usually make you feel pretty good, but fulsome compliments, which are exaggerated and usually insincere, may have the opposite effect.

Hundreds of years ago fulsome used to mean “abundant,” but now it’s more often used to describe an ingratiating manner or an excess of flattery that might provoke an onlooker to mime gagging. If you find fulsome to be a rather clunky word, there are several fun (if vaguely stomach-churning) synonyms, including buttery, oily, oleaginous, and smarmy.

Question 8

Noisome

Answer 8

Offensive to the point of arousing disgust; foul, particularly in reference to an odor.

Noisome describes odors that are disgusting and distasteful; it also carries a second meaning of noxious, harmful, or unwholesome. Synonyms and related words for noisome include loathsome, offensive, disgusting, and to emphasize the decaying and rotting aspects of disgusting smells, fetid and putrid.
It seems as if noisome must be related in some way to noise, but it’s actually related to annoy. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com) and The , the word noise comes from an Old French word spelled the same way that meant “din, disturbance, uproar, or brawl.” Interestingly, this French word came from the Latin nausea, literally meaning “seasickness,” and the Latin word came from the Greek nausia, literally meaning “ship-sickness.” The Greek root naus means “ship” and gives us such words as astronaut (“star sailor”) and navy