different between irritation vs botheration

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French irritation, from Latin irr?t?ti?, from irr?t?re, present active infinitive of irr?t? (“I excite”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?????te???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

irritation (countable and uncountable, plural irritations)

1. The act of irritating or annoying

   What irritation causes you to be so moody?

2. The state of being irritated
3. The act of exciting, or the condition of being excited to action, by stimulation; -- as, the condition of an organ of sense, when its nerve is affected by some external body; especially, the act of exciting muscle fibers to contraction, by artificial stimulation; as, the irritation of a motor nerve by electricity; also, the condition of a muscle and nerve, under such stimulation.
4. A condition of morbid excitability or oversensitiveness of an organ or part of the body; a state in which the application of ordinary stimuli produces pain or excessive or vitiated action.

Derived terms

Related terms

• irritate

Translations

Further reading

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

French

Etymology

From Latin irr?t?ti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i.?i.ta.sj??/
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophone: irritations

Noun

irritation f (plural irritations)

1. irritation (all senses)

Related terms

• irriter

Further reading

• “irritation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From bother +? -ation (suffix indicating an action or process, or its result).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?ð???e??n?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?ð???e??(?)n/
• Rhymes: -e???n
• Hyphenation: bo?ther?a?tion

Interjection

botheration (originally Ireland, dated, often humorous)

1. A mild expression of annoyance or exasperation: bother!
   • 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, The Magician's Nephew, Collins, 1998, Chapter 3,

     "Blast and botheration!" exclaimed Digory. "What's gone wrong now? [...]"

Translations

Noun

botheration (countable and uncountable, plural botherations) (originally Ireland, dated, often humorous)

1. (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 [...]

   • 1982, Saul Bellow, The Dean's December, New York: Pocket Books, 1983, Chapter 4, p. 59,

     At home he read too many papers. He was better off without his daily dose of world botheration, sham happenings, without newspaper phrases.

2. (countable) An act of bothering or annoying.
3. (countable) A person or thing that causes bother, inconvenience, trouble, etc.

   Synonym: nuisance

   • 1954, Peter De Vries, The Tunnel of Love, New York: Popular Library, Chapter Six, p. 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

References