Officious Meaning and Usage

Officious Meaning and Usage

adjective.

1. objectionably aggressive in offering one's unwanted services, help, or advice; meddlesome: an officious person, an officious host; officious attention.
2. ready to serve; obliging.
3. Pertaining to, or being in accordance with, duty.


Some Forms:
officiously - adverb.
officiousness - noun.


Let’s look at some examples:

1. They were tolerably well bred, very officious, humane, and hospitable.

Adjective: Obliging, ready to serve


2. The officious officer could never resist sticking his nose into other people’s business.

3. The officious salesperson refused to leave us alone, so we finally left without buying anything.

4. It didn't take long for the officious dragon to declare that my diet was all wrong, that I needed to lose a stone in weight.

5. I am sick and tired of all the officious telephone calls from political campaigners trying to convince me to vote for their candidate.

6. Jane wanted to help her neighbours, but she was hesitant to offer assistance for fear of being perceived as officious.

7. One of those officious, noisy little men who are always ready to give you unasked information.

8. He was bustling about self-importantly, making an officious nuisance of himself.

9. He's an officious little man and widely disliked throughout the company.

Adjective: interfering, meddlesome, meddling, intrusive



Synonyms: interfering, meddlesome, meddling, busy, intrusive, obtrusive. dictatorial, intruding, forward, bold, aggressive, insistent, persistent, demanding, importunate, overbearing,

Antonyms: modest, self-effacing, shy, timid, disinterested


Some more examples:

1. Henrietta really didn't want to move to another office but she was rather officiously moved while on vacation.
2. Nothing so fatal as to strive too officiously for an abstract quality like beauty
3. Yet not to earth are those bright luminaries Officious.
4. No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.



Origin: 1565, "zealous, eager to serve," from L. officiosus "dutiful," from officium "duty, service". Sense of "meddlesome, doing more than is asked or required" had emerged by 1600 (in officiously). An officious lie (1577) is one told to do good to another person (from L. mendocium officiosum or Fr. mensonge officieux).


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 taking on a negative sense to describe 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.