A mild, surface-level displeasure caused by something bothersome, repetitive, or inconvenient.
A mild, surface-level displeasure caused by something bothersome, repetitive, or inconvenient; also the bothersome thing itself.
The low end of the family — the most neutral, everyday term for low-grade displeasure, with no implication of wounded pride (unlike pique or umbrage) or moral wrong (unlike indignation). Near-interchangeable with irritation, but blander and more readily names the source (“a minor annoyance”), where irritation implies a sharper, more abrasive edge. Milder and more transient than frustration (no blocked goal), vexation (more literary), or the worn-down exasperation, and far below anger, fury, rage, or wrath.
Late 14c., “vexation, trouble,” from Old French enoiance, from anuier “to be troublesome, annoy.” The verb annoy traces via Late Latin inodiare “make loathsome,” from Latin in odio “(it is) hateful (to me),” from odium “hatred.”
Stable since c. 1500: both the “feeling of being annoyed” and the “source of annoyance” senses are centuries old and current. No reliable recent-generation shift is sourced.