Causing irritation, annoyance, or agitation to someone. Used to describe something or someone that persistently bothers or disturbs a person.
This phrase dates to the early 1900s and draws on the medical understanding of nerves as the body's communication system. The idea is that irritating stimuli affect one's nervous system, causing discomfort. It replaced earlier expressions like 'getting on one's wick' and reflects growing awareness of neurology in popular culture.
The phrase perfectly captures how psychological irritation feels physical - we literally do experience stress in our nervous system when annoyed. It's remarkable how this medical metaphor became so embedded in everyday speech that we rarely think about its anatomical accuracy. Shakespeare used 'you are too much upon my nerves' centuries before we understood what nerves actually do.
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