importunity

Origin

From Late Middle English importunitie, importunyte (“insistence, persistence; grievance; hardship, trouble; inappropriateness (?)”), from Anglo-Norman importunité, and Middle French importunité (“persistent demand; hardship, trouble; something difficult or troublesome; inappropriateness”) (modern French importunité), and their etymon Latin importūnitās (“insolence, rudeness; oppressiveness, relentlessness; unfitness, unsuitableness”), from importūnus (“annoying; rude; inconvenient; unsuitable”) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns denoting states of being). Importūnus is derived from im- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + portus (“harbour, port; haven, refuge”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”), from *per- (“to carry forth, fare; to dare, try; to go through;”)) + -nus (suffix forming adjectives). By surface analysis, importune + -ity (suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives, referring to the state of conforming to what the adjectives describe).