Sunday Word: Noisome

[sallymn]

noisome [noi-suhm]

adjective:
1 noxious, harmful
2a offensive to the senses and especially to the sense of smell
2b highly obnoxious or objectionable

Examples:

It was six yards square and extravagantly swathed in purple and gold, from its velvet headboard and valance to its voluminous damask curtains. The Virgin Queen took it with her when she moved from one royal residence to the next, chased by winter drafts and the inevitable buildup of noisome effluvia emanating from the rudimentary sanitation of her privy. (Kathryn Harrison, The Body Politic, The New York Times, February 2014)

So, we get back from a few days away to the most appalling smell. Even the word 'noisome' (one of my favourites) doesn't cut it. This was a stench so hideous that it actually made me gag. (Lynne Barrett-Lee, Here's how I took on the stray cat causing mayhem in our home, Wales Online, April 2018)

An entire 'Seinfeld' episode revolves around Kramer's mad plan to swim in the East River and the noisome odors he begins to exude. (Tony Perrottet, How New York City Is Rediscovering Its Maritime Spirit, Smithsoniam Magazine, May 2017)

There's no furniture or bedding, and the only running water (whether for drinking, washing or flushing the noisome toilet) is the rain pouring through the leaking roof. (Nadia Wheatley, Writer Charmian Clift, her biographer and one surprising, Aussie-linked Greek island, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 2022)

The cavern that had swallowed his emeralds in a fashion so nefarious was a steep incline running swiftly down into darkness. It was low and narrow, and slippery with noisome oozings; but the money-lender was heartened as he went on by a glimpse of the glowing jewels, which seemed to float beneath him in the black air, as if to illuminate his way. (Clark Ashton Smith, 'The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan')

As the light sank into the noisome depths, there came a shriek which chilled Adam's blood - a prolonged agony of pain and terror which seemed to have no end. (Bram Stoker, The Lair of the White Worm)

Origin:

late 14c, noisom, 'harmful, noxious', from noye, noi 'harm, misfortune' (c 1300), shortened form of anoi 'annoyance' (from Old French anoier, see annoy) + -some. Meaning 'bad-smelling, offensive to the sense of smell' is by 1570s. (Online Eytymology Dictionary)

Noisome looks and sounds like a close relation of noisy, but it's not. While noisy describes what is excessively loud, noisome typically describes what is excessively stinky. (It is also used to describe things offensive to the senses generally, as well as things that are highly obnoxious, objectionable, or simply harmful.) Noisome comes from the synonymous Middle English noysome, which combined the suffix -some, meaning 'characterized by a specified thing', and the noun noy, meaning 'annoyance'. Noisy, incidentally, comes ultimately from Latin nausea, meaning 'nausea'. (Merriam-Webster)