obnoxious

Etymology

PIE word *h₁epi Learned borrowing from Latin obnoxiōsus (“subject to someone, under someone’s authority”) + English -ous (suffix denoting the presence of a quality in any degree, typically an abundance). Obnoxiōsus is derived from obnoxius (“guilty, punishable; subject to someone, under someone’s authority”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; overly; prone to’, forming adjectives from nouns).

adj

1. Extremely offensive or unpleasant; very annoying, contemptible, or odious.
   Throwing stones at the bus is another example of your obnoxious behaviour.
   Someone jolted my arm and the contents of my glass spilled onto an immaculate white dress. I felt obnoxious. 1989, Antônio Torres, Blues for a Lost Childhood: A Novel of Brazil, Columbia, La.: Readers International, page 41
   I would have been nine or ten when my mother chased me up a thorn tree with a ceremonial hippo-hide whip. What my crime was, I forget. My mother was, and remains, a woman of exceptional forbearance. I must have done something so obnoxious as to beggar belief. 2003, David Bennun, “After the Earthquake”, in Tick Bite Fever, London: Ebury Press, published 2004, page 109
   He felt obnoxious and knew perfectly well that he would have no explanation whatsoever had anyone discovered him, but she looked so alluring, so untroubled, so fortunate, that his only concern was the terrible crack the shutter made...quiet as it was. 2013, Molly Cutpurse [pseudonym?], chapter 5, in Dark Man, [United Kingdom: Lulu.com], page 44
2. (of a person) Unjustly disagreeable, argumentative or objectionable; brazenly rude.
   He was an especially obnoxious and detestable specimen of a man.
   I always feel out of place when I am around people. I feel obnoxious if I laugh or talk too much. 13 December 2013, Catherine Hilterbrant, chapter 16, in Drive-by Psychosis, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, page 51
3. (archaic or obsolete) Exposed or vulnerable to something, especially harm or injury.
4. (obsolete)
   1. Causing harm or injury; harmful, hurtful, injurious.
   2. Deserving of blame or punishment; blameworthy, guilty.
   3. Under the authority or power of someone; subject, subordinate; hence, deferential, submissive, subservient.
      [M]ost of them (the fellowes) being sneaking and obnoxious, they did run rather with the temper of the warden, than stand against him, to keep themselves in and enjoy their comfortable importances. a. 1696 (date written), Anthony a Wood [i.e., Anthony Wood], “The Life of Anthony a Wood, Written by Himself”, in Anthony a Wood, Philip Bliss, Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the University of Oxford.[…], new edition, volume I, London: […] F. C. and J. Rivington; […], published 1813, →OCLC, page xlix
   4. Followed by to: likely to do something.