The adjective noisome means obnoxious, harmful, offensive to the senses (especially the sense of smell). It doesn't mean making noise (noisy).
Examples:
- "Man is a noisome bacillus whom Our Heavenly Father created because he was disappointed in the monkey." (Mark Twain)
- "Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation." (James Thurber)
Usage Notes:
- "Neither in meaning nor in origin does noisome have any connection with the word noise; the similarities are purely coincidental. Noisome is a compound formed in Middle English from noy, an obsolete word meaning 'harm' or 'annoyance,' and the suffix -some, which is still current in Modern English, where it is used to form adjectives with the general sense of 'characterized by some quality.' Noy is related to the modern verb annoy, whose source is the Latin phrase in odium, 'hateful, odious.'"
(Webster's II New College Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005) - "With Noisome And Noisy NYC Garbage Truck Traffic Rolling Through Skaneateles And Finger Lakes Towns, Schumer Calls On DSNY To Steer Trucks To Routes Away From Small Communities"
(Press release on the website of U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, July 26, 2007) - "While almost all English usage books find a need to caution against confusing noisome with noisy, our citation files show that noisome is almost always used to mean 'noxious' or 'disgusting.'"
(Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage, 2002)
Practice:
(a) "If you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be _____ and colorful and lively." (Mel Brooks)
(b) Our house guests brought along camphor and other _____ chemicals that are supposed to repel lice.
