different between inconvenience vs vex

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French inconvenience (“misfortune, calamity, impropriety”) (compare French inconvenance (“impropriety”) and inconvénient (“inconvenience”)), from Late Latin inconvenientia (“inconsistency, incongruity”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?nk?n?vi?n??ns/, /??k-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?nk?n?vinj?ns/, /??k-/
• Hyphenation: in?con?ve?nience

Noun

inconvenience (countable and uncountable, plural inconveniences)

1. The quality of being inconvenient.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     They plead against the inconvenience, not the unlawfulness, […] of ceremonies in burial.

2. Something that is not convenient, something that bothers.
   • 1663, John Tillotson, The Wisdom of being Religious

     [Man] is liable to a great many inconveniences.

Synonyms

• (something inconvenient): annoyance, nuisance, trouble

Translations

Verb

inconvenience (third-person singular simple present inconveniences, present participle inconveniencing, simple past and past participle inconvenienced)

1. to bother; to discomfort

Synonyms

• (obsolete) discommodate

Translations

Further reading

• inconvenience in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• inconvenience in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From Middle English vexen, from Old French vexer, from Latin v?x?re (“disturb, agitate, annoy”). Displaced native Middle English grillen (“to vex, annoy”) from Old English grillan. Doublet of quake.

Pronunciation

• enPR: v?ks, IPA^(key): /v?ks/
• Rhymes: -?ks

Verb

vex (third-person singular simple present vexes, present participle vexing, simple past and past participle vexed or (archaic) vext)

1. (transitive, now rare) To trouble aggressively, to harass.
2. (transitive) To annoy, irritate.

3. (transitive) To cause (mental) suffering to; to distress.
4. (transitive, rare) To twist, to weave.

   • some English wool, vexed in a Belgian loom

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To be irritated; to fret.
   • 1613, George Chapman, The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois

     Wake when thou would'st wake, fear nought, vex for nought

6. (transitive) To toss back and forth; to agitate; to disquiet.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:vex.

Synonyms

• (to annoy): agitate, irk, irritate
• (to cause mental suffering): afflict, grame, torment

Derived terms

Related terms

• quake
• vexatious

Translations

Noun

vex (plural vexes)

1. (Scotland, obsolete) A trouble.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “vex”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

vex

1. Alternative form of wax (“wax”)

Etymology 2

Verb

vex

1. Alternative form of vexen