The
“cur” in “curmudgeon”
December 6th, 2013
Q: What is the origin of the word “curmudgeon”?
A: Nobody knows, but that hasn’t stopped a lot of word detectives
from speculating about it. And some of the speculations are less speculative
than others. Here’s the story.
When the word “curmudgeon” first showed up in English in the late
1500s, it referred to a grasping, avaricious man.
But the online Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged describes that
sense as archaic, and it says the word now means “a crusty, ill-tempered, or
difficult and often elderly person.”
Yes, that would be me. I must say that I’m not "often elderly", I’m elderly, by age, each
and every day. (I do sometimes wonder
though at the definition of ‘elderly’: is it, as it would be in France, an ‘âge certain’ or a ‘certain âge’? There is a difference! One is one’s number of
years. One is one’s outlook after that number of years.)
I can’t be a curmudgeon 24/7. Most days will find me feeling and
thinking elderly and exasperated, with that “cur” in curmudgeon just growling
about what’s going on in my world and the world in general. But then most days
will also find me feeling young at heart - even at my ‘âge certain’ I can appreciate a great
looking specimen of a man - not
ill-tempered or difficult, and happy as a lark. It’s a matter of being very
young in outlook too. Bien sur!
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