nudnik

English

Alternative forms

• noodnick, noodnik, nudnick

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”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈnʊdnɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊdnɪk

Noun

nudnik (plural nudniks)

1. (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.

Related terms

• nudzh, noodge, nudge

Anagrams

• Dunkin, unkind