As dear auld Robbie Burns said “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us, To see oursels as others see us!”
Rory said there are times I am remarkably grumpy (bad-tempered and irritable) and I replied that I’m not grumpy, I’m a kvetch (a person who complains a great deal). My defense of kvetchiness is that it is my birthright. That all NYC birth certificates are licenses to kvetch, it’s right there in the fine print.
I will concede the irritable (having or showing a tendency to be easily annoyed or made angry) part of grumpy but take exception to the angry part. I do get irked easily because there is just so much in this world be be irked at (with?) but y’all have never seen me angry nor do you want to, trust me.
While kvetching is not really synonomous with grumpy it could also be defined as whining. I absolutely cop to both ketching and whining but Ann doesn’t agree (Bless her heart!)
Now then Ashley contends that “the older one gets, the more cantankerous one is allowed to be.” I’ve often fashioned myself as a curmudgeon but upon looking up the definition or both cantankerous (bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative) and curmudgeon (a bad-tempered person, especially an old one). While I agree with Ashley that cantankerous is a fun word to say, as is curmudgeon, they are not fun things to be.
“Bad-tempered” carries a very negative connotation for me, in reality it means “easily annoyed or made angry”. I’ve already addressed those words, I accept annoyed, I reject angry. “Bad-tempered has another meaning “characterized by anger or ungraciousness” and I object to that strenuously – I hope to hell I am never ungraciousness. That’s like being unkind and I consciously try to never be unkind, I don’t always succeed; after all SAINT is just a part of my name, it is not who I am.
I hope Rory and Ashley don’t take this the wrong way. I don’t think they insulted me, or even hurt my feelings. I am not irked, annoyed or irritated. Their comments amused the hell out of me, I truly did LOL
I love words – as abstract things almost. The meaning of words can be subjective despite there being agreed upon dictionary meanings. I’ve written about connotation before so I won’t rehash that (you can click the link and read it for yourself). And there are cultural meanings for words and geographical – we are all familiar with the differences in Brit-speak and American English – same words, different dictionary meanings, different cultural connotation as well. We don’t always know the exact meanings of words we use, we use them as what we think they mean, mostly close to the dictionary meaning but a little off sometimes.
WORDS! I love them. I used to read the dictionary for fun and I could probably get lost for weeks in the OED.
And aside from all of that, because you know I got sidetracked from my original premise, here’s what I was thinking when I started this –
I see myself as kvetchy and whiney. I am often irked, annoyed and irritated, oh yes. The fun question to ask is: How do you see yourself? And how do you think others see you? You can comment how you see yourself but first look up the exact meaning of whatever words you use, you might not be so quick to describe yourself so. And I can reply with how I see you, if you like. Won’t that be fun? Or not.
Subject to Change Without Notice 