Spot: Why do we call it a “pet peeve”?

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Why do we call it a "pet peeve"?

Do the sounds of someone chewing drive you to distraction? If you call that, or some other annoying habit, a "pet peeve," you might want to learn where the term came from.

annoyed adult woman hiding face, head down

D on't you hate it when people arrive late after you tell them to be somewhere at a specific time? Or how about when people wear outside clothes on the bed? Or maybe it annoys you when people loudly scroll through TikTok on a public train and all you want to do is yell at them to use headphones!

… Sorry, that last one really rubs me the wrong way.

These are examples of pet peeves, or seemingly minor but still annoying issues. The term "pet peeve" is a recent creation that dates back to a little over a century ago, but let's break down each component.

The word "pet" has been used as an adjective since the late 16th century, originally referring to privately owned animals. In the 19th century, the meaning broadened to include things or beliefs we hold near and dear. Soon, people began using it ironically in terms such as "pet hatred" and "pet aversion."

"Peevish," meanwhile, is a 15th-century term used to describe things that evoke a feeling of spite or fretfulness. "Peeve" was created from "peevish" via back formation in the 20th century to fulfill a need for a term to describe personal annoyances. A back formation is when a new word is created by chopping off a real or supposed suffix or affix from an existing word.

"Pet" and "peeve" were combined in print in the 1910s, cementing the term in the public lexicon. A 1916 article from The Chicago Daily Tribune asked, "What is your little pet peeve? Hearing the baby scratch hubby's collar." This denoted one of the first known published instances of the term "pet peeve," but people continued complaining in print throughout the 20th century. From a 1976 edition of the National Observer: "Poorly designed parking garages have riled me for a long time, but they've become a full-fledged pet peeve in recent years." And in a 2002 copy of Time Out New York: "This touches on my biggest peeve with today's ... society." More than a century after the term's creation, folks continue to vent their pet peeves. The Instagram hashtag #petpeeve has 158,000 posts and counting.