curmudgeon
noun

- an old person who is often in a bad mood

(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

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ORIGIN

All of us likely knew a curmudgeon when we were young children. He (curmudgeons are typically older men) could have been an old man who yelled at the neighbourhood kids and chased them from his property with his walking stick. He might have been the owner of a local store who grumbled at every customer who walked through the door. Or perhaps he was the old guy who sat on the park bench and complained loudly to no one in particular about how "the world is going to hell in a hand basket."

Curmudgeon is one of those "origin unknown" words. There are several fanciful theories about how the term derived, but the supporting evidence is rather thin. Nevertheless, here are a couple of suggestions:

According to the OED, the first written evidence of curmudgeon is in Richard Stanyhurst's Description of Ireland, which was published in Holinshed's Chronicles in 1577: "Such a clownish Curmudgen." Some people have been quick to claim a connection to Gaelic since Stanyhurst was Irish, but this is mere speculation.

According to the people at Random House, the Latin expression "frumentarius" (corn dealer) was written as "cornmudgin" in a translation of "The History Of Rome" around 1600. That led many to believe that the origin must have been corn plus the Old French "muchier or mucier" (to hide) or the Middle English "muchen or michen" (to steal). The problem is that curmudgeon appeared nearly a quarter of a century before.

A more likely theory is that curmudgeon evolved from the Old English "cur," which is related to several Germanic verbs meaning "to growl," plus the Scottish "mudgeon" (grimace) or "murgeon" (mock or grumble).

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SYNONYMS

bellyacher, crank, crosspatch, griper, geezer, malcontent, sourpuss, whiner

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PRACTICE OWAD TODAY

Say something like:

"Anyone who's experienced the past 80 to 90 years has a perfect right to behave like a CURMUDGEON."