onerous

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃enh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃énh₂os Proto-Italic *onos Latin onus Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ōtsos or *-otsos Latin -ōsus Latin onerosuslbor. Old French onereus Middle French onereuxbor. Middle English onerous English onerous Inherited from Middle English onerous, borrowed from Middle French onereux, from Old French onereus, a learned borrowing from Latin onerosus, from onus (“burden”) + -ōsus. Compare exonerate.

1. Imposing or constituting a physical, mental, or figurative load which can be borne only with effort; burdensome.

   “That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the costs of schooling a grievous burden, and schoolmasters as mere drones, he had various ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable.”

   “Again, and more intensely than ever, she desired a fixed occupation,—no matter how onerous, how irksome.”