dictionary.com: a particular and often continual annoyance
Wikipedia.com: The term pet peeve was introduced to a wide readership in the single-panel comic strip The Little Pet Peeve in the Chicago Tribune during the period 1916–1920. The strip was created by cartoonist Frank King, who also created the long-running Gasoline Alley strip. King’s “little pet peeves” were humorous critiques of generally thoughtless behaviors and nuisance frustrations. Examples included people reading the inter-titles in silent films aloud, cracking an egg only to smell that it’s gone rotten, back-seat drivers, and rugs that keep catching the bottom of the door and bunching up. King’s readers submitted topics, including theater goers who unwrap candy in crinkly paper during a live performance, and (from a 12 year old boy) having his mother come in to sweep when he has the pieces of a building toy spread out on the floor.
vocabulary.com: a peeve is an annoyance, and a pet peeve
is an annoyance that’s nurtured like a pet — it’s something
someone can never resist complaining about. There are
all kinds of pet peeves, like littering, misusing punctuation,
driving slowly in the fast lane, or talking during movies. If
something like that drives you crazy and you have to yap
about it, it’s a pet peeve.
My pet peeve is when someone leaves my room with the lights on or the door open when I clearly have these things off and closed. There is no reason for people to not put things back the way that they are. When people do this I become irritated because it leads me to believe they do not have any care for the way I do things.
