botheration

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English[edit]

WOTD – 23 December 2020

Etymology[edit]

From bother +‎ -ation (suffix indicating an action or process, or its result).[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Interjection[edit]

botheration (originally Ireland, dated, often humorous)

  1. A mild expression of annoyance or exasperation: bother!
    • 1891, “A Live Issue”, in Puck, page 5:
      "Botheration ! Who cares ? Why don't you ask if [our ancestors] carried pocket-books ?"
    • 1918, Katherine Mansfield, "Prelude" in Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback, 2002, p. 120
      Botheration! How she had crumpled her skirt, kneeling in that idiotic way.
    • 1955, C. S. Lewis, chapter 3, in The Magician's Nephew, Collins, published 1998:
      "Blast and botheration!" exclaimed Digory. "What's gone wrong now? [...]"

Translations[edit]

expression of annoyance — see bother

Noun[edit]

botheration (countable and uncountable, plural botherations) (originally Ireland, dated, often humorous)

  1. (uncountable) The state of being bothered; annoyance, vexation.
    Synonyms: irritation; see also Thesaurus:annoyance
    • 1803, William Blake, Letter to his brother James Blake dated 30 January, 1803, in The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David V. Erdman, New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1970, p. 696,
      I write in great haste & with a head full of botheration about various projected works [...]
    • 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter 21, in A Tale of Two Cities‎[1]:
      [...] I am determined to be peevish after my long day's botheration.
    • 1982, Saul Bellow, chapter 4, in The Dean's December, New York: Pocket Books, published 1983, page 59:
      At home he read too many papers. He was better off without his daily dose of world botheration, sham happenings, without newspaper phrases.
  2. (countable) An act of bothering or annoying.
  3. (countable) A person or thing that causes bother, inconvenience, trouble, etc.
    Synonym: nuisance
    • 1954, Peter De Vries, chapter 6, in The Tunnel of Love, New York: Popular Library, page 63:
      [...] the by-products and botherations that go with pleasures make it hardly worth it. Sex is supposedly life's greatest pleasure and look what it gives you.

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “botheration, int. and n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2016; “botheration, n. and int.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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