A pet peeve, pet aversion, or pet hate is a minor
annoyance that an individual finds particularly irritating to a greater degree than the norm.
Origin of the concept
The
noun
In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
''peeve'', meaning an annoyance, is believed to have originated in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
early in the twentieth century, derived by
back-formation
Back-formation is the process or result of creating a neologism, new word via Morphology (linguistics), morphology, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes ...
from the
adjective
An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
''peevish'', meaning "ornery or ill-tempered", which dates from the late 14th-century.
The term ''pet peeve'' was introduced to a wide readership in the single-panel
comic strip
A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...
''The Little Pet Peeve'' in the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' during the period 1916–1920. The strip was created by cartoonist
Frank King, who also created the long-running ''
Gasoline Alley'' strip. King's "little pet peeves" were humorous critiques of generally thoughtless behaviors and nuisance frustrations. Examples included people reading the
inter-titles in
silent film
A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
s aloud, cracking an egg only to smell that it's gone rotten,
back-seat drivers, and rugs that keep catching the bottom of the door and bunching up. King's readers submitted topics, including theater goers who unwrap candy in crinkly paper during a live performance, and (from a 12-year-old boy) having his mother come in to sweep when he has the pieces of a building toy spread out on the floor.
Current usage and examples
Pet peeves often involve specific behaviors of someone close, such as a spouse or significant other.
These behaviors may involve disrespect, manners, personal
hygiene
Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...
, relationships, and family issues. A key aspect of a pet peeve is that it may well seem acceptable or insignificant to others, while the person is likewise not bothered by things that might upset others. For example, a supervisor may have a pet peeve about people leaving the lid up on the
copier, when others interrupt when speaking, or their subordinates having messy desks.
References
{{reflist
External links
Word Detective Origins of Pet Peeve
Human behavior
1910s neologisms