adjective
extremely unpleasant.
ORIGIN late 16th cent. (in the sense [vulnerable [to harm]] ): from Latin obnoxiosus, from obnoxius ‘exposed to harm,’ from ob- ‘toward’ + noxa ‘harm.’ The current sense, influenced by noxious , dates from the late 17th cent.
Things I believe could accurately be described as obnoxious:
People who back into parking spots. Why do they do this? This is extremely obnoxious! An ex-boyfriend used to do this and it drove me nuts. I asked him for a reason once, and his response was, "it makes it easier to drive away." Easier than what? I do not understand. You can drive into your parking spot and back out of it when you leave (total time this takes, an approximate 2.10223 seconds), or you can look like a jackass backing into a parking spot, which I know takes more than 2.10223 seconds, and then look like a smug jackass when you drive away. If as you read this you realize you are guilty of this obnoxious behavior, please stop. You are obnoxious.The luxury SUV L.A. population. These people are ridiculous. On the way out of L.A. last week, we played a fun game called, "count the big cars." It's a simple game, really -- you count how many big cars (SUVs, vans, pickup trucks) you see in a row before a small car (like a sedan, though we allowed Scions to be in this category) interrupts the flow. I think one time I got to 11. Then, a little car would come, followed by 7 or 8 big cars. But these aren't just big cars. They aren't just pick-up trucks; they are obnoxious big cars and pick-up trucks. They are Escalades, Explorers, Yukons, dual-cabin-extra-long-bed-wide-as-a-motherfucker cars. With 85-lb blonde, fake-tanned women driving them to pick up their chihuahuas from the beauty salon. This is obnoxious. Within 20 minutes (TWENTY!) I counted eight (EIGHT!!!!) Hummers.
*This is the appropriate time to include a subcategory of obnoxious people:
People who drive Hummers.You are obnoxious. Please stop. You live in California, not a military base. You are going to the Lakers game, not a secret operation in the desert. You drink soy lattes with light foam, wear 200 dollar torn jeans, and the closest you've come to combat is playing video games. You probably spend half your paycheck on gas. You are obnoxious. Please stop being a jackass.
I regress. Back to the big cars. When we got back up to Palo Alto, I realized there are many big cars here too - but in the week that we've been back, I have not seen one (ONE!) Yukon, Escalade, Navigator, or Hummer (this is not to say they never appear). The point is, I have seen more Priuses driving on the way to work today (2.5 miles) than I have obnoxious luxury SUVs in a month. L.A. drivers who ride in luxury SUVs but never go offroading, or even out of L.A. -- you are obnoxious. (Here is a fun wrap-up of other obnoxious L.A. driving behavior.)
The medical industry. The medical industry as a whole is obnoxious. Kaiser Permanente is my insurance provider, so I can really just focus on them. The referral system is obnoxious; the fact that their website says "refill your prescription online," lets me enter all my information, confirms that my prescription is arriving in the mail, then FOUR DAYS LATER emails me saying, "your prescription cannot be refilled, and please don't reply to this email as the pharmacy will not read your message," and then directs me to the same page where I originally filled in my information -- this is all obnoxious. Also obnoxious -> trying to call KP and waiting on hold for 25 minutes until I get fed up and hang up, only to have to do this later. Kaiser is obnoxious.
Twenty year old college students who wear Ralph Lauren collared sweaters with dress shirts underneath. You are obnoxious. You are twenty, you binge drink, and you room with four other guys. You are not yet a businessman, a lawyer, or a senator. Act your age. Extra obnoxious points - when said collared RL sweaters are worn with sandals. Completely mind boggling. You are obnoxious, please stop.(A note on the image: this is not exactly what I'm talking about, but the fact that this is how RL markets their clothes makes wearing them that much extra obnoxious.)
Old people who think that because they are old, they can be obnoxious. I will cite an example: On Tuesday last I was preparing for an event at work that was starting in, oh, about 20 minutes. I check on the room and find out 137 chairs have been set out, and I was only expecting a few over 50 people to show up. So, I scurry and try to take out as many of the extra chairs as possible - nothing worse than too many empty chairs!! -- and just then, an old man comes and sits down in a chair that was CLEARLY meant to be taken away (seeing as how every other chair in that column had already been cleared). I let him know, as nicely as I can, that I mean to clear all the chairs in that row. To which he responds, "Hmf! I think they call those columns." So obnoxious! If you are old, please do not be obnoxious just because you think being old gives you the right to do so. Being old gives you the right to fall asleep during boring talks, walk slowly when you cross the street, and tell the same story over and over again. It does not give you the right to be obnoxious.This concludes my examples of how to use the word of the day: obnoxious.
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