Curmudgeon; Definition of…

About 40 years ago, yes a lifetime, my late mother gave me a piece of advice that I will always remember and practice. That is, when in personal, private or casual conversation, or even in an important business meeting or around the water cooler, when someone uses a word you don’t know, never ever admit that you don’t know it. Smile knowingly, make a mental (or real) note and look it up later. Sometimes asking for a meaning of a word can make you seem interested in the conversation or are wisely seeking counsel, but usually it just makes you look like an uneducated idiot if the word is a fairly common one. Like “curmudgeon.”

Since I’ve become a self-identified curmudgeon (that would be since about 1995) and have even used the word in passing, both in real life and written down, I’ve been asked what it means. Generally, only half in jest, I respond that a curmudgeon is a person, when asked what a curmudgeon is, responds, “A curmudgeon is a person who, when asked what a curmudgeon is, responds, ‘Look it up, asshole.’ Although that seems to incense the innocent; it certainly promotes understanding.

Here’s Webster’s:

cur-mud-geon \ker-‘mej-en\ n [origin unknown] 1. archaic: MISER 2: a crusty, ill-tempered, and usually old man – curmud-geon-ly adj.

What’s interesting to me is that a curmudgeon seems to be gender specific. I suppose old women can have curmudgeonly traits but as in lots of other areas, the masculine triumphs yet again!

You might have noticed I like to illustrate my little uninteresting blogs with interesting visuals. I think it sort of ameliorates some of the inevitable boredom; I’m really not sure of my motivation. I mostly garner them from google.com and this time when I asked for something for “curmudgeon” I half expected to see a photo of myself. But it’s not to be; alas. Perhaps I could provide google with a photo for definitive future use — it works for me.

You don’t know the meaning of the word “ameliorate?” See paragraph two above.