botheration
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From bother + -ation (suffix indicating an action or process, or its result).[1]
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌbɒðəˈɹeɪʃn̩/
Audio (UK): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˌbɑðəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/
- Rhymes: -eɪʃən
- Hyphenation: bo‧ther‧a‧tion
Interjection
[edit]botheration (originally Ireland, dated, often humorous)
- 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)
- (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.
- (countable) An act of bothering or annoying.
- (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]act of bothering or annoying
person or thing that causes bother, etc.
References
[edit]- ^ “botheration, int. and n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2016; “botheration, n. and int.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -ation
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/eɪʃən
- Rhymes:English/eɪʃən/4 syllables
- English lemmas
- English interjections
- Irish English
- English dated terms
- English humorous terms
- English terms with quotations
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns