Items filtered by date: Wednesday, 13 May 2009

13 May 2009

WFT- whinge

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for Monday, May 11th was whinge.

to complain fretfully : whine

In their "Did you know?" section, M-W provided the following:

"Whinge" isn't just a spelling variant of "whine." "Whinge" and "whine" are actually entirely different words with separate histories. "Whine" traces to an Old English verb, "hwinan," which means "to make a humming or whirring sound." When "hwinan" became "whinen"in Middle English, it meant "to wail distressfully"; "whine" didn't acquire its "complain" sense until the 16th century. "Whinge," on the other hand, comes from a different Old English verb, "hwinsian," which means "to wail or moan discontentedly." "Whinge" retains that original sense today, though nowadays it puts less emphasis on the sound of the complaining and more on the discontentment behind the complaint.

This brings to mind an admonition from Scripture:

Torah Portion

unknown

 

 

or view this week's triennial cycle reading.

Today is

Yom Sheni, 12 Iyar, 5784

Monday, May 20, 2024

 

Learn more about this date in history.