the.com/bother
The effort you withhold from things that haven't earned it yet.
means To cause someone trouble, worry, or inconvenience — or to make the effort to care about something at all.
from Origin genuinely murky — it surfaces in English in the 1700s, likely from Anglo-Irish speech, possibly linked to Irish 'bodhar' meaning deaf or deafened, as in the noise of something deafening you into irritation. No confirmed deeper root beyond that; etymologists mostly shrug and say 'probably Irish.'
- origin
- possibly Irish English, 18th century, meaning noise
- grammar flex
- works as noun, verb, and interjection
- winnie the pooh
- made it sound almost cozy
- true opposite
- not calm, just caring