noise

The story

1. Piedmontese · derived fromnojé“to bother, to annoy”
2. Latin · derived frominodio“to make repulsive”
3. Old French · derived fromenoiier“to bother, to disturb”
4. Latin · derived fromnoxia“hurt, harm, damage, injury”
5. Latin · derived fromnausia
6. Old French · derived fromnoise“a dispute, wrangle, strife, noise”
7. Middle English · inherited fromnoyse
8. English todaynoise

From Middle English noyse, noise, from Old French noise (“a dispute, wrangle, strife, noise”), of uncertain origin. According to some, from Latin nausia, nausea (“disgust, nausea”); according to others, from Latin noxia (“hurt, harm, damage, injury”); but neither explanation is satisfactory in regard to either form or sense. Potentially a reduced form of Old French enoiier (“to bother, to disturb”), from Latin inodio (“to make repulsive”) - which would make it a doublet of English annoy (“to bother, to irritate”) and English ennui (“boredom, jadedness, depression”). Compare Piedmontese nojé (“to bother, to annoy”), though this fails to explain the final /z/. Displaced native Old English swēġ.