Where does “pesky” come from?
Pesky comes from English pest, from Middle French peste meaning plague or nuisance, from Latin pestis meaning plague or destruction.
pesky (English): Annoying, troublesome, irritating
Definitions
- Annoying, troublesome, irritating
Ancestry of “pesky”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | pesty | annoying or troublesome; pesky; literally acting... |
| 2 | English | Pest | One of the originally three separate cities that were united in 1873 to become the Hungarian capital, Budapest |
| 3 | Hungarian | Pest | One of the originally three separate cities that were united in 1873 to become the Hungarian capital, Budapest |
| 4 | Old Church Slavonic | пещь | oven, stove |
| 5 | Proto-Slavic | peťь | oven |
| 6 | Proto-Slavic | peťi | to bake; to get motivated, to put effort into, to... |
| 7 | Proto-Balto-Slavic | pektei | to bake |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | pékʷeti | to be cooking; to ripen |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | pekʷ- | to cook; to ripen |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | h₃-ép-kʷ- | — |