A few days ago Callimachus accused me of "curmudging", a verb he no doubt back-formed from curmudgeon.

Cal will appreciate as much as anyone this fanciful etymology for the word. Merriam Webster says "origin unknown", but in The Story of Language, Mario Pei suggests that it derives from the French "coeur méchant".

Pei translates this as "evil heart", but I think evil is a bit too strong for méchant. If you catch your enfant stealing bonbons, you might scold him as méchant, but I don't think you'd consider him evil. Maybe naughty. Or if your galant slyly squeezes your derrière as the maître d'hôtel is leading you to your table, you might smile and call him méchant, but I don't think you'd consider him evil. Wicked perhaps.

Checking my source again, I see that Pei's actual claim is just that the word is "said to come from" coeur méchant, not that it actually does. Given that, knowing that Pei is not exactly meticulous even with the claims he does assert, seeing that Pei also lists curmudgeon as a word that comes from Scottish, observing that curmudgeons really aren't naughty or wicked so much as just grumpy, and recalling sober Merriam Webster's pronouncement of "origin unknown", I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that's a false etymology.

Ah well. Se non è vero, è ben trovato.

11:26:38 PM  [permalink]  comment []