Word of the Day

: November 19, 2014

officious

adjective uh-FISH-us

What It Means

1 : volunteering one's services where they are neither asked nor needed : meddlesome

2 : informal, unofficial

officious in Context

Staff members view the new consultant as an officious individual offering unwanted feedback, but she is simply doing her job.

"During an interview this week with Morris News, Saxby, a Republican, said he is frustrated by the delay but attributes it more to officious federal bureaucrats than to partisan gamesmanship." - Carla Caldwell, Atlanta Business Chronicle, April 2, 2014

Did You Know?

Don't mistake officious for a rare synonym of official. Both words stem from the Latin noun officium (meaning "service" or "office"), but they have very different meanings. When the suffix -osus ("full of") was added to officium, Latin officiosus came into being, meaning "eager to serve, help, or perform a duty." When this adjective was borrowed into English in the 16th century as officious, it carried the same meaning. Early in the 17th century, however, officious began to develop a negative sense describing a person who offers unwanted help. This pejorative sense has driven out the original "eager to help" sense to become the predominant meaning of the word in modern English. Officious can also mean "of an informal or unauthorized nature," but that sense isn't especially common.