Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang An obtuse, boring, or bothersome person; a pest.
Wiktionary
- n. A person who is very annoying; a persistent nag.
- n. A bore; a boring person.
- n. A pest of a person; a jerk.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. a pestiferous boring and dull person.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (Yiddish) someone who is a boring pest
Etymologies
- noodnik is attested since 1925, nudnik since 1929. From Yiddish נודניק (nudnik) < root of נודיען (nudyen, "to bore") + ניק (-nik, "noun-forming suffix"). Ultimately from Proto-Slavic *nuda < Proto-Indo-European *neuti- (“need”) < *nau- (“death, to be exhausted”). (Wiktionary)
- Yiddish, nudne, boring (from nudyen, to bore; see nudge2) + -nik, -nik. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Yiddish easily coins new names for new personalities: a nudnik is a ` pest '; a phudnik is a ` nudnik with a Ph. D.”
“Economics in Reducing costs = recession: "Show Green me the money" Your Text here Your Text here Security Its all about PR: considerations Almost anything are conceived as can be sold a burden under any given ( "nudnik") Green tag Security Shahar Maor's work Copyright 2009 @STKI Do not remove source or attribution from any graphic or portion of graphic 11”
“Greg, with respect, you're becoming what in the vernacular is politely termed a "nudnik"; ~) - Trumpeldor has apologised for any offence given, and if, as I suspect, he's an Israeli, then the word you dislike would come naturally to him, with no derogatory intent, as Reb S. has suggested.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“The third-season opener wittily reunited Heaton with her Everybody Loves Raymond hubby Ray Romano, who guested in a flashback as Mike's nudnik ex-high-school classmate who nearly ruined his honeymoon with Heaton's Frankie.”
“Would Twain's humor and stylistic charm shine as brightly without words like Nerf and nudnik?”
The Huffington Post: Laurence Hughes: Sanitizing Twain -- to the Nth Degree
“March 8th, 2010 at 3: 44 pm vuntz schvatz nudnik thesaurus joe from Lowell says:”
“Can't we call her a schmutz, nudnik, noodge (this would be my preferred option), nebbish, ganef, or dybbuk?”
GOP Consultant On CNN: Sometimes It's "Accurate" To Call A Woman A "Bitch"
“Then, alas, the crazy takes over, and Peggy "The Ophelia of the Right" comes into her nudnik own.”
“Would you like a UNRESTRAINED, no strings or scams devoted to nudnik of shiny Acai Berry?”
“Besides proving her spouse is innocent, she has two beloved but nudnik adults wanting to spend day time with her.”
Retirement Can Be Murder-Susan Santangelo « The Merry Genre Go Round Reviews
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nudnik’.
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Yiddishkeit
There are a few short lists of Yiddish words, but none appropriate to the glory of the language, and none that are open. Thought I'd start one, and would love contributions. I'm tagging as I go, an...
schmuck, nosh, chutzpah, shtick, kvetch, oy vey, oy gevalt, shvitz, shtik, shiksa, putz, mensch and 94 more...
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nik words
nik as an ending
and beatnik wins over wordnik by
one hit
1993 W. Safire Safire's New Polit. Dict. 498 There were no-goodniks and faroutniks, beatniks, and sicknicks.beatnik, chetnik, chinovnik, computernik, dvornik, kibbutznik, kolkhoznik, neatnik, noisenik, nudnik, peacenik, refusenik and 7 more...
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WF - niks
The rare occurrences of the suffix "-nik"
refusenik, peacenik, beatnik, draftnik, kibbutznik, nogoodnik, neatnik, nudnik, ispravnik, nachalnik, computernik, folknik and 12 more...
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In the "nik" of time
Well, once again I've been beaten to another list idea (see "-nik" by hap_e_wordnik). You might as well come on in and add kinnikinnick, Dubrovnik, or even minikin, if you like - I'll be out search...
sputnik, wordnik, Wordnik, beatnik, knacknik, refusenik, Nik da Grik, Arrondissement of..., chutzpanik, Dolni Dabnik, folknik, Kamnik and 10 more...
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Foreign glossa
apparat, kobold, haimish, faklempt, nudnik, nebbish, bubbe meise, bupkis, chinook, oy gevalt, geronimo, banzai and 6 more...
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Verecund, flivver, etc
Just some words I happen to enjoy. Some thread-worn, some not.
yegg, yob, verecund, amatory, fermata, threepenny, gruntled, flivver, gamboge, decolletage, ordure, nudnik and 173 more...
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logos's list
A poor pathetic thing, but mine own.
invidious, lugubriousness, vilify, noisome, synastry, front and center, declension, conjugation, regnal, diphthong, circumlocution, bishopric and 141 more...
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Unsavoury Types
insults, epithets, etc.
drotchel, drossel, drazel, flutch, lollard, scobberlotcher, ragabash, faineant, cad, buffoon, martinet, tosspot and 116 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 1: Less Common
These are words that I have learnt over the years and want to remember
epithalamium, hustings, verger, atheling, moue, pendulous, pendragon, funicular, pericope, fettle, eleemosynary, moot and 160 more...
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ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
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word set 12
plasmasphere, cockatrice, delimitable, precipitancy, trellising, thermochromism, cadenza, tentaculiferous, fluctiferous, circumambient, loblolly, trailing edge and 142 more...
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Words
Words I like.
jejune, eunoia, swallow, spelunk, milquetoast, echolalia, trumble, toothsome, synecdoche, taciturn, kerfuffle, aleatoric and 98 more...
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msc's Words
pugilist, threepeat, bloviate, palaver, syncreism, pastiche, eschatology, peripatetic, glossolalia, busker, nudnik, troglodyte and 213 more...
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Yiddish
tsuris, verklempt, haimish, bupkis, naches, nudnik, nebbish, bubbe meise, knish, shiksa
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webgypsy's Words
baffle, perplexed, kerfuffle, verily, halibut, birse, poing, axiom, ineluctable, meander, nudnik, shrubbery
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People
alienist, Bedouin, cicerone, demimondaine, epigone, varlet, strumpet, milquetoast, badaud, nudnik, schlemiel, maven and 3 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nudnik.
rolig As Wordnet notes, this word came into English via Yiddish, but it has Slavic roots (as the suffix -nik suggests). I suspect it comes from the Russian adjective нудный (nudnyj), which means "tiresome, annoying" and is related to the verb нудить (nudit'), which means "to force, oblige" (a nudnik being someone who forces himself on you). The Slavic root nud- actually refers to "need" (it's cognate with the English word, I suspect), and produces also the Russian word нужный (nužnyj), meaning "necessary", and the Slovene word nujen, also meaning "necessary", but with the added sense of "urgent". Mar 30, 2008