Word of the Day: Nudnik

The Word of the Day today is nudnik. I discovered this word while reading Phillip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. I quote:

But above and beyond everything else, he had originally been drawn by her screwball expression; for no reason, Juliana greeted strangers with a portentous, nudnik, Mona Lisa smile that hung them up between responses, whether to say hello or not.

Dick uses the word as an adjective, although it appears to be a noun. That is neither here nor there.

The Man in the High Castle
The Man in the High Castle

According to Merriam-Webster, nudnik means “a person who is a bore or nuisance.”

I might use the word nudnik in a sentence like this:

A group of brainy nudniks beat my friends and I head-to-head on trivia night at Books and Brews, a local bar and restaurant.

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