The annoying ambiguousness of the word ANNOY

The eleventh commandment has just been handed down, thou shalt not annoy pilgrims attending World Youth Day events in Sydney this July. Whatever “annoy” actually means… Linguistics expert Nick Riemer, from the University of Sydney, said the word annoy had its origins in the French word for annoyance - ennui. The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘annoy’ as causing “slight anger or mental distress”, but Dr Riemer said the word was extremely ambiguous. “One person’s annoyance may be another person’s fre

Read this article...