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nudnik

[noo d-nik]
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noun Slang.
  1. a persistently dull, boring pest.
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Origin of nudnik

1945–50, Americanism; < Yiddish, equivalent to nud- base of nudyen (see nudge2) + -nik -nik
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
British Dictionary definitions for nudnik

nudnik

noun
  1. US informal an annoying or boring person
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Word Origin

C20: from Yiddish nudyen to bore + -nik
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for nudnik

n.

1947, from Yiddish, with agential suffix -nik + Polish nuda "boredom" or Russian nudnyi "tedious, boring," from Old Church Slavonic *nauda-, from PIE *neuti- "need" from root *nau- "death, to be exhausted" (see need (n.)).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper