This week, I'm proud to introduce Whinger. Winger was asked to define Whinge.Whinge, v.i. To complain in a dogged fashion about relatively trivial things: "She won't stop whinging about the 45-watt light bulbs."
Whinging is what folks do when they are reasoning out loud how the annoying mundanities of life would be remedied if everyone were sane and courteous. Whinging does not imply action to fix any issue on the part of the whinger, just to complain about it.
Can also be used as a noun: "I had a whinge about the consistent lateness of the bus and then felt better."
Whinging should not be confused with its lesser cousin, whining. Whining implies hopelessness and is often accompanied by a high-pitched nasal tone. Whinging is a bit bitchy, which makes it infinitely more fun.
About Whinger: Whinger writes Whinging It and you all do know how I love alliteration. Her blog runs the full space from funny and light to thoughtful and profound. God bless her, she writes about her pets and offers hope to all of us by loving both her cats and her dog. Look for Whinger at the upcoming Blogher convention in San Jose.
Whinge, defined above, is a word Whinger has undertaken a mission to popularize in the United States. Naturally, I'm delighted to have this space be a step towards her bright vision. Whinger says she first encountered the word through British novels. I first encountered it in Australia where the gerund usually preceded an ethnic noun. I assumed she was Australian but she turns out to be from Denver, the land up over.
Whinger lives in Oakland with her partner, to whom she's been married for four years, a dog, a cat, a power mower and hopefully a vacuum. From time to time she goes home and babysits her nieces and nephews to recapture her enthusiasm for housepets. Did I mention she's a friend of Kyahgirl's? Welcome to Whinger and thanks for a job well done.
How to be a future guest on this site: Once again, I'm fresh out of guests. Why, oh why, don't more people want to be guests here? Here I have the best readers in the world and I freely, generously, offer them to just about anybody once a week. I read practically the whole blog for the guest and write a biography so glowing you'd have a hard time finding a kinder memoir. I work my fingers to the bone. I give up my nights and any hope of intimacy so that people can have this spot once a week to make new friends. And what do I get? I practically have to beg for guests. What will it take? What more can I offer? Is it my breath? *bawling*
To be a Wednesday guest, just send an email to dpascover at mac dot com. On a future Wednesday, after posting that week's guest, I'll send you an email with a word to define. You'll be expected to return your definition along with a graphic representing either your definition or yourself by the following Saturday. The only rules are no profanity and no novels, please. And whatever I make up at the last minute.
53 comments:
Well, yes, Acton Bell does know refined when she sees or hears or reads it.
I didn't know this word, but of course I love it. I have a good whinge or more a day.
Welcome Whinger! I love your definition.
Good job as usual Douglas. So, are you guys going to the blogger convention in San Jose? Do you know the way?
Thank you Whinger -- and sign me up! I'll start inserting it into my every day language as soon as a whinge comes to me....so...any minute now.
Haha, Actonbell. Of course it is. Me, I'm a natural whiner.
To San Jose? Funny TLP. Sure, Southwest airlines from Burbank. Of course, that conference isn't for people of my ducting.
Mutha, whingeing would make a nice addition to your blog.
Oh boy, one of my favorite people is here today. Yay!
Hi Whinger :-) Its so nice to see you here. Doug's place is the warmest, zaniest, friendliest dog-house on the planet so you won't find much to whinge about here!
Oooh, I like this word! I like it...a lot. Yay, I just learned a new word.
WHINGE, v. To complain in a less spirited fashion. To practice diss your neighbor in a particularly curmudgeonly, unpunny way. Just like a whingeing Pom.
And yes, down under it's spelled - sorry, spelt - with an "e". While - sorry, whilst - in Britain it's not. Sometimes. I wish they'd make up their minds. Now look what you've done, whinger, you've got me whing(e)ing about spelling. How futile.
Jenna, with an avatar like that, what use in this wide world could you possibly have for the verb "to whinge"? Oh - oops, I forget. Go Sharks!
Nic eot meet you, Winger. And very well done indeed. Doug your write up was great as ever, I laughed especially hard at "the land up over".
I've british cousins who accused my little brother of doing this and it was thus cemented in the family lexicon.
Nice to see you here, Whinger, I've lurked through your place a couple times, hopped over from Kyahgirl, and always enjoyed it.
Another excellent guest, Doug, keep whinging, maybe you'll get more.
Aw, thanks, Kyahgirl. I'm learning to appreciate what it means to be a friend of Kyah.
But will you use it, Jenna? Will you do it?
Quack, quack, O Ceallaigh. POME (Prisoner of Mother England) brings back memories. My favorite Aussie ethnic slur.
Minka, ;-)
Logo. you're right. Maybe I haven't whinged enough. I'll edit.
Hi all!
Let's ALL have a good whinge today. I'm certain therapists are going to soon recognize that it improves one's mood and outlook. And if they don't, we can whinge about therapists.
O Ceallaigh - I wish they'd make up their minds regarding spelling as well. Ah well.
Awesome!
Doug, you, my friend, can bring it!
Excellent whinging, good to know you have it in you.
Love the amended plea for guests, Doug.
wow Doug, have you been secretly taking whinging lessons? Love your edit.
*hands Doug a tissue*
I hate it when dogs cry. I just don't know what do do. *Pets Doug's muzzle.* There, there, I'm sure they'll be coming out of the wood work now.
Nice to meet you Whinge. I have been whinging over my life today
Doug,in the sixteen or so months we have known each other I have never heard you whinge before, well, like this.
For anybody who doesn't know how Doug and I met, he saved me from an assault by the radical right.
Then we attempted to understand the blogging world together. I think we succeeded.
Just felt like adding that
O is in looove with my avatar. He's rather obsessed with it isn't he?
Doug, Doug, Doug...I shall whinge it at you any time. Any. Time.
Doug's appeal sounds more like whining to me than whinging. I can hear the nasal tones and see the pouty lower lip.
Thank You, Whing, for adding this great word to my vocabulary. Whinging has more ooomph than whining or griping. I shall become a whinger from now on.
You live near my old stomping grounds. I grew up in Fremont and also lived in Milpitas for about five years.
My favorite place in Oakland is The Claremont Hotel and Spa. My mom and best friend and I have gone there on three trips. Pure luxury!!!!!
oh no whinger said bus...bus and coffee from a certian company send me over the edge...Slowly I turned...Step by Step.
Actually while I ponder my definition you should head over to my place and give me 5 songs about busses.
Whinge -- The sound the bus mirror makes when it smacks a road sign.
Whinging - well having Irish roots, it was a term bandied about daily in my home - in all contexts - "stop your whinging, don't be a whinge, etc.", along with divil - a devil with none of the evil overtones.
To Whinge -- its a word describing what it is like to pretend to play in the infamous hair band Winger
Whinger, huzzah! Therapists will recognize that whinging on blogs is good for your mental health about the time journalists recognize that political commentary on blogs is good for public discourse. So, plan B: Those idiot therapists never listen and don't care!
Logo, and Whinger, thank you for inspiring me. You are muses.
Thanks, Kyahgirl. I don't think it's a secret I've been taking whinging lessons.
Pia, thanks. That was no whinge.
Jenna, it's the spirit behind the avatar that has him in thrall, I'm sure. I bet he's lurking at your site right now.
Jamie Dawn, you don't appreciate the breadth of my talent! (How was that?)
Niagara Falls, Village Idiot!
Gina, welcome back! Would Whinge like the divil be a phrase we can use? It has a great ring.
Star, welcome back. And since you missed yesterday, Happy Birthday and WOO HOO to you.
Jamie Dawn - (whisper) I think Doug's leaning toward whiney as well, but didn't want to state outright as he's been so gracious in his host blogging ways. (/whisper)
ginah - I have the Irish roots as well, but it's mostly exhibited by uncles who drink excessively and very fun wakes.
both of which are very familiar parts of my upbringing along with a tendency towards the maudlin!
Doug, thanks - nice to be back. Like the ring, but it would probably have to be whinge like "a" divil. "The" would make it a pronoun. Or as used by my Aunt Helen, "Oh, that one - he's a divil!"
Doug -- excuse me..but our age is showing...
...inch by inch - guess we're the same age.
Nice to meet you Whinger.
I admit to not being familiar with the word. Yes, I am slipping.
Frm the definition though I think I'd prefer a whinger over a whiner any day.
Whinger, I heard that!
Gina, either way I'm up to the task.
Gina and Idiot, It saddens me if the Stooges are really generational. If I'd ever had kids I'd have played tapes of that episode instead of Mozart.
Cooper and Cowgirl, you'd be surprised how little difference there is. Here in the states, a whinger is just a whiner with airs. No improvement for sure. Present company excepted, of course.
Here in the states, a whinger is just a whiner with airs.
Yes. But sometimes "airs" make all the difference. Not always, but sometimes. :)
The Stooges are multi-generational...besides the words
"And now for something completely different"
we also hear
"I'm trying to think but nuttin happens"
Monty Python?
thanks Cowgirl-I DO have good taste in friends don't I? :-) I have even more great friends after my guess appearance on Waking Ambrose so all you shy readers or lurkers, come out and play. You'll never regret it!
(Doug, Kyah will take payment in rawhides)
This is kyahgirl, crazy blogger won't let me sign in.
crap! that was supposed to be 'guest' appearance, not guess appearance. since I'm anonymous now maybe its appropriate!
Of course, Whinger. All the difference. Like everyone's saying, whining is petty while whinging is sophisticated.
Yes, Gina. Village Idiot is treating us to the breadth of his agedness.
Kyahgirl, bless you. Right now I want to build you a broadband tower with my own hands. And not to fear, I'm sure the spelling was Blogger's fault too.
nah, what's wrong with being a lurker?
hi, Whinger! "airs" do make a difference. between life and death, for instance. :-P
even if you are a baby bird, your mom will think you are beautiful.
Jenna - the word is "astounded". But I'll confess I don't get out much.
Whinger and Jamie Dawn - the Claremont? Only a couple of miles from my pad. Of course I can't afford to darken the door. But I might have a gig ... more on that when/if it happens.
Oh and Doug, you'd be absolutely astounded how much algae you eat without knowing it. Thanks for stopping by my place today. I'm really sorry about the cover charge. I've had a word with the concierge.
Yes Doug, the girth of my agedness knows no bounds
Not a thing wrong with being a lurker, Ariel. Can you move that lamp? Nice pun, and good point.
O Ceallaigh, Whinger and Jamie Dawn, in Atlanta The Claremont is the seediest spot in the whole city. What's in a name?
O Ceallaigh, thanks. It wasn't so bad after all.
V.I., thou hast said it.
O Kelly (That's easier for simple minded me): The three times I've been to The Claremont, it has been on my mother's tab. She treated for the whole deal: room, spa treatments and meals. It was awesome!!!!
Whinger: We'll let Doug get away with the whining. He's just too nice to move up a level and become a whinger. He's afraid we will show up at his door and bitch-slap him when he answers the door and says in his nasaly tone, "Go away! I'm busy writing a Prattler post!"
Jamie Dawn, you just cut me up. I'm still laughing.
Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.
Hey Doug, I left a question for you on my blog but doubt you'll get back there to see it so I'm coming here with it. Is there something I should know about the Aga Khan? Feeling a bit paranoid.
Haha, Gina. Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!
Nothing, Kyahgirl, my mistake, I was thinking of Batu Khan. I'll leave a comment on your site so you don't go to sleep worried.
With apologies, better late than never, I hope, and nice to meet you Whinger! I confess not only am I not familiar with this word, but my first thought was Kip Winger (former sexy rocker auditory association was with '80s rocker who has aged far less than gracefully).
And as a friend of the wonderfully funny Kyahgirl (*cough* caption finalist *cough*), you deserve better than that association. So I offer this instead...
Whinger: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee for the discerning blogger.
Doug - another great write up and plead from yet other funny (*cough* caption finalist *cough*) blogger buddy of mine.
Oooh! I am not the only one late to the party! Sorry, but teaching and kids and life in Spain has kept me away!
WHY GOD WHY?
Does that qualify or do I have to work harder at being a whinger? Hmph!
Great job Lady W! Bohemians everywhere applaud you and love the partay!
Doug! I am horrified, HORRIFIED, at the lack of guests!!!! But I think they are intimidated! I know I was! I promise you that had I not been a guest already I would be emailing you as I type! I PROMISE!
Methinks Jenna needs to think about it! HELLO?!?!? JENNA?!?!? Did you hear me?????
Sar, Caption Finalist at Belle is the next level of glory Whinger can aspire to.
Miz B, thanks for the prompt and I do trust you, even if that's the best whinge you can manage without profanity.
thanks buddy, no worries :-)
WHAT!!??
two *cough*caption finalists*cough* here, in one day?
cool
Banner day, huh?
Hi, Whinger! Sorry I missed you yesterday... Can't have enough (fellow) lesbos in the blogosphere... I'm going to visit your blog now!
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