curmudgeon

Curmudgeon appeared in English in the late sixteenth century. Its origin is unknown. Samuel Johnson's dictionary (1755) offered an etymology from French coeur méchant (wicked heart), but Johnson himself credited this to 'an unknown correspondent,' and the derivation is almost certainly wrong. Other theories link it to corn mudgin (corn hoarder) or to Scottish Gaelic muigean (disagreeable person). None is convincing. The word arrived without a passport.

The earliest printed use is in Thomas Blount's Glossographia (1656), where a curmudgeon is defined as 'an avaritious churle.' The first meaning was closer to miser than to grouch — a curmudgeon hoarded wealth, not opinions. The shift from stinginess to general grumpiness happened over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the financial criticism broadened into a personality description.

The word has a phonetic character that matches its meaning. The hard 'k' of 'cur-,' the grumble of '-mudg-,' and the thud of '-eon' produce a sound that feels grumpy before the dictionary confirms it. Whether this is coincidence or phonesthetic influence — the tendency for certain sounds to cluster around certain meanings — is impossible to determine. The word sounds like what it means.

Modern curmudgeons include Andy Rooney, Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets, and every editorial columnist who begins sentences with 'In my day.' The word has acquired a warmth it did not originally possess. A curmudgeon is grumpy, but lovably grumpy. The word has been softened by affection.