both·er / ˈbä[voicedth]ər/ • v. 1. take the trouble to do something: nobody bothered locking the doors the driver didn't bother to ask why.2. (of a circumstance or event) worry, disturb, or upset (someone): secrecy is an issue that bothers journalists. ∎  trouble or annoy (someone) by interrupting or causing inconvenience: she didn't feel she could bother Mike with the problem. ∎  [intr.] feel concern about or interest in: don't bother about me—I'll find my own way home [as adj.] (bothered) I'm not particularly bothered about how I look. • n. effort, worry, or difficulty: he saved me the bother of having to come up with a speech. ∎  (a bother) a person or thing that causes worry or difficulty: I hope she hasn't been a bother. ∎  a nuisance or inconvenience: it's no bother, it's on my way home.PHRASES: hot and bothered in a state of anxiety or physical discomfort.ORIGIN: late 17th cent. (as a noun in the dialect sense ‘noise, chatter’): of Anglo-Irish origin; probably related to Irish bodhaire ‘noise,’ bodhraim ‘deafen, annoy.’ The verb (originally dialect) meant ‘confuse with noise’ in the early 18th cent.

bother (dial.) bewilder with noise, confuse; pester, worry. XVIII. — Ir. bodhraim deafen.
Hence bother sb. XIX.