In the 15th century, English jurist Sir John Fortescue observed, "Somme
. . . obtayne gretter rewardis than thei have disserved, and yit
grugge, seying they have [too] litill." Fortescue's
grugge (an early spelling of the verb
grudge) meant "to grumble and complain," just like its Middle English forerunner,
grucchen, and the Anglo-French word
grucer, which gave rise to the English forms. English speakers had adopted the "complain" sense of
grudge
by the late 13th century, and a century later they had added the
extended sense "to give reluctantly." That second sense may have
developed because people associated
grudge with the related word
begrudge (meaning "to give reluctantly," as in "I
begrudged him a second chance.")
Grudging, which developed from
grudge, made its English debut in the 1530s.
No comments:
Post a Comment
The South Central Bulldog reserves the right to reject any comment for any reason, without explanation.