22 May Begrudgers pile on

Posted at 16:17h in Words by

Bruce Wark writes:

[B]egrudgery… may not (yet) be in dictionaries, but it is a useful coinage. Besides, the OED does list the Irish-English noun, begrudger: a resentful and dissatisfied person; a habitual naysayer or complainer. Well, what does a begrudger indulge in, if not begrudgery?

I’d say it’s OK to use a non-dictionary word if there’s no other word that conveys the meaning. Shakespeare did so repeatedly coining around 1,500 words, many of which we use today. To the Bard we owe bedroom, cold-blooded, compromise, enmesh, leapfrog, lonely,love letter, unreal and worthless. And since Shakespeare did not coin begrudgery, someone else had to.

A distinguished Nova Scotian who may wish to remain anonymous adds:

I can’t say for sure that “begrudgery” is a word with a long pedigree, but I’m quite sure it is in current use in Ireland. Begrudger is a commonly used Irish noun (along with “whinger”, a somewhat related unflattering comment).

I used “begrudgery” when speaking to an Irish lawyer after reading your blog this morning and he didn’t bat an eye.

If it isn’t a standard word, it should be. It expresses an idea which I don’t think any other single word encompasses. Isn’t that how English came to have such a large and varied vocabulary?