colloq. Also 8 bodder, Sc. bauther, bather. [Etymology unknown; the earliest instances occur in the writings of Irishmen (T. Sheridan, Swift, Sterne), and the word has long formed part of the vocabulary of the comic Irishman of fiction and the stage. This suggests an Anglo-Irish origin; but no suitable etymon has been found in Irish.
The Irish bódhar deaf, bódhairim I deafen (suggested by Crofton Croker), and buaidhirt trouble, affliction, buaidhrim I vex (proposed by Garnett) alike labor under the difficulty that the spoken words do not suggest bodder or bother. Wedgwood would identify the word with pother: could bother be an Anglo-Irish corruption of the latter?]
† 1. trans. To bewilder with noise; to confuse, muddle; to put into a fluster or flutter. Obs.
1718. T. Sheridan, To Swift, in Swift’s Wks. (1824), XV. 107. With the din of which tube my head you so bother.
1832–53. Whistle-Binkie (Sc. Songs), Ser. I. 22. The hearts of the maids, and the gentlemen’s heads, were bother’d, I’m sure, by this Irishman.
2. trans. To give trouble to; to pester, annoy, worry. Also refl., and in phrase to bother one’s head, one’s brains: to trouble oneself with thinking.
a. 1745. Swift, Dial. Hibern. Style, Wks. VII. 156. Lord I was bodderd t’other day with that prating fool Tom.
1753. Dial. betw. Swift & Prior, 123. You boddered me enough with many of these Articles, already.
1762. Sterne, Lett., in Traill, Sterne, vi. 81. Civility thus uniform wearies and bodders me to death.
1768. Foote, Devil on 2 Sticks, III. Don’t let him bother us, with his yea and nay nonsense.
1852. E. Forbes, Lett., in Wilson & Geikie, Life, xiv. 506. A point that has bothered Prestwich, D’Archiac, and Dumont.
1878. Joaquin Miller, Songs Italy, 127. Whether you bother your brain or no.
b. In the imperative (logically 3rd pers. sing. with implied subject after analogy of verbs of cursing) as a mild imprecation; also bother it! and absol. bother! as an exclamation indicating annoyance (confused with the sb.; cf. BOTHERATION).
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxi. 215. Oh, bother! don’t plague me, Emily!
1855. Thackeray, Rose & Ring, xvi. (1866), 106. ‘Bother your album!’ says Bulbo.
1877. Fraser’s Mag., Oct. Clericality, Bother the parson!
3. intr. and absol. To give trouble to others or to oneself; to make a fuss; to be troublesome.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Election, Poems (1845), 42. Lang’s their debatin’ thereanent, About protests they’re bauthrin’.
1787. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ode upon Ode, Wks. 1794, I. 411. If musicians miss but half a bar, Just like an Irishman she starts to bother.
1850. Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamph., vii. Make money; and don’t bother about the Universe.
1863. Hawthorne, Pilgr. Boston, in Old Home (1879), 178. We bothered a good while about getting through a … lock.
1863. Kingsley, Water-Bab., iii. 119. To prevent the Cythrawl Sassenach from coming bothering into Wales.
† 4. intr. and trans. (?) To blarney, to ‘humbug.’
1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, I. 101. Sufficient documents to enable me to bother about it, so that I could not easily be detected. Ibid., 152. As … Cowan … would be less likely to be convicted of some unfortunate blunder … than myself, I desired him to go down and bother them well.
