pesky
/ˈpɛski
/- It turns out that mosquitoes are a pesky problem on his island in the South Pacific.
- Any pesky remnants of feelings she used to have for him would just have to be dealt with later.
- Trim as necessary and adhere to the top of the wood making sure to get out any pesky air bubbles.
Derivatives
peskily
- The experience would have been an enjoyable save for Nicole who had attached herself peskily to my side.
- Their music is an inspired secret collusion of big beats, sassy rapping and peskily unsettling electro hooks.
peskiness
- I was trying explain to someone the other day why I was continuing to hang out with someone who was, by all accounts, a cause of a lot of peskiness for me.
- Norway, in attempting to stem the returns from the fitful peskiness that underpinned Scotland's gameplan, ended up falling back on what they know best.
- Anarchy would be attractive, if it wasn't for the peskiness of human nature.
Origin
Late 18th century: perhaps related to pest.
pest from Late Middle English:
At first this was a term for the bubonic plague. It comes via French peste from Latin pestis ‘plague’. Pestilence (Middle English) is from the same root. Pest in the sense of ‘a destructive plant or animal’ is not found until the mid 18th century, when fear of the Black Death has receded. The informal word pesky (late 18th century) may be related to pest perhaps via pesty. Pester (mid 16th century), however, is not directly connected. The source is French empestrer ‘encumber’, but the English form is influenced by pest. Early use included the meanings ‘overcrowd (a place)’ and ‘impede (a person)’. The current sense ‘annoy someone with frequent requests’ is an extension of an earlier use, ‘infest’, referring to vermin. See also plague