officious

Etymology

15th century, from Middle English offycyous, from Latin officiōsus (“kindly”), from officium (“service”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪʃəs

Adjective

officious (comparative more officious, superlative most officious)

1. (obsolete) Obliging, attentive, eager to please.
   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 206:

     Elizabeth's misery increased, at such unnecessary, such officious attention!

   • 1998 [1807 December], Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, letter to Karl August von Hardenberg, in History of Political Thought, volume 19, Exeter: Imprint Academic, page 249:

     ‘It is essential that the nation become accustomed to managing its own affairs, so that it will emerge from this state of infancy in which an anxious and officious government attempts to keep the people’.

2. Offensively intrusive or interfering in offering advice and services.
   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168:

     The help tended to be officious, the rules, if heeded, restrictive, and the management meddlesome.