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The first 'word4word' programme concentrated on two groups of words, both describing behaviour that the speakers disapproved of or disliked. I wondered what other changing words of that kind came to listeners' minds - such as 'what do you call someone who complains all the time?'
When I was younger, our local expressions were 'a moaner' or 'a grizzler'. The 'grizzler' was usually used for small children but 'moaner' gave rise to nicknames like 'Moaning Minnie' - of course, the 'Harry Potter' series has a miserable character called 'Moaning Myrtle'. But recently 'whinger' seems to be gaining in popularity. Is it a generation issue, or a regional one?
And what about terms for people we like or admire, as well as the derogatory ones? Are there more terms for the disagreeable than for the agreeable in slang or local dialect? Has any listener started a collection yet?
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What do you call someone who...?
The first 'word4word' programme concentrated on two groups of words, both describing behaviour that the speakers disapproved of or disliked. I wondered what other changing words of that kind came to listeners' minds - such as 'what do you call someone who complains all the time?' When I was younger, our local expressions were 'a moaner' or 'a grizzler'. The 'grizzler' was usually used for small children but 'moaner' gave rise to nicknames like 'Moaning Minnie' - of course, the 'Harry Potter' series has a miserable character called 'Moaning Myrtle'. But recently 'whinger' seems to be gaining in popularity. Is it a generation issue, or a regional one?
And what about terms for people we like or admire, as well as the derogatory ones? Are there more terms for the disagreeable than for the agreeable in slang or local dialect? Has any listener started a collection yet?
Diana
Re: What do you call someone who...?
This isn't quite the same thing - but my family uses the word pisey/pizey (not sure of the spelling) - pronounced as "pies" and then "e" - to mean someone who is in a bad mood. My family come originally from Shropshire (although we no longer live there). Does anyone else recognize this word?
Re: What do you call someone who...?
Whoops! Missed a bit off the end of that post ...
According to the author of the Sharpe novels, Patrick Cornwell, they made a whistling sound as they went past. Presumably, if they didn't go past, they made a sort of "thud" sound ...
Re: What do you call someone who...?
Surely, Kasper, if they hit you you'd not hear anything, as if I learned one thing from Victor comic, it's you never hear the bullet that kills you...
Re: What do you call someone who...?
Simon, this could get very silly ... so I'll just agree with the bit about the one that kills you. And in any case, didn't Victor's heroes go around with a cigarette case or a deck of cards or a Mountie's police whistle in their breast pockets for just such an eventuality? (You're not the only one who can give his age away, you know!)
Re: What do you call someone who...?
I seem to remember that Moaning Minnie apears in one of Wifird Owens poems ... or was it another of the WWI poets? The old brain isn't what it was, you know! Was there a MM in ITMA? (Tommy Handley's WWII radio show It's That Man Again, if YTTK.)
It could be quite a bit older. In the American Civil War, a rifle bullet was developed called the Minie (acute accent on the "e") ball. This was made of lead, and had the shape of a short cylinder, closed at the front but open at the back, so the exploding charge would force the sides into the rifling and make it spin. Acccording to the author
Re: What do you call someone who...?
In our family we used the expression 'misery poke' as in 'don't be such a misery poke'. I have never written it so don't know if 'poke' is the correct spelling!.
Re: What do you call someone who...?
I'd always thought Moaning Minnie was a creation of Thatcher... was that from where she came from, Grantham or wherever?
Re: What do you call someone who...?
Moaning Minnie has been around since at least World war One - a nickname given to a type of German shell that made a distinctive noise
Re: What do you call someone who...?
I don't know where the expression came from, but Moaning Minnie was certainly not an invention of Thatcher or her speech-writers. My mother used the phrase in the 1950s/60s, and considering her cultural formation I would expect that it came from a radio character, film character or a character in a comic.
Re: What do you call someone who...?
I've just been dancing off round the web, and it turns out the original Moaning Minnies weren't people, but First World War bombs which made a groaning noise as they fell to Earth...