nudnik
English
Etymology
From Yiddish נודניק (nudnik) < root of נודיען (nudyen, “to bore”) + ־ניק (-nik, “noun-forming suffix”) (English -nik). Ultimately from Proto-Slavic *nuda < Proto-Indo-European *newti- (“need”) < *new- (“death, to be exhausted”).
Compare Russian ну́дный (núdnyj, “tedious”), Ukrainian нудни́й (nudnýj, “tedious”), Polish nudny (“boring”), Slovak nudný (“boring”), Old Church Slavonic ноудити (nuditi) or нѫдити (nǫditi, “to compel”), Hebrew נוּדְנִיק (“nag”).
Noun
nudnik (plural nudniks)
- (US, colloquial, sometimes attributive) A person who is very annoying; a pest, a nag, a jerk. [from 20th c.]
- 1992, Richard Preston quoting Samuel Eilenberg, The New Yorker, 2 March, "The Mountains of Pi":
- He interrupts people, and he is not interested in anything except what concerns him and his brother. He is a nudnick!
- 1962, Philip K. Dick, “The Man in the High Castle”, in Four Novels of the 1960s, Library of America, published 2007, page 15:
- Juliana greeted strangers with a portentous, nudnik, Mona Lisa smile that hung them up between responses, whether to say hello or not.
- 1992, Richard Preston quoting Samuel Eilenberg, The New Yorker, 2 March, "The Mountains of Pi":
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