Heard on The Judges: "grudge-hold against"

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Dec 31, 2008, at 10:04 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Heard on The Judges: "grudge-hold against"
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>
> Judge Mathis:
>
> "So, besides everything else, you think that [your older brother]
> dislikes your wife."
>
> Late thirty-ish, white male speaker:
>
> "Yes, sir. He thinks that she took me away from him at a young age.
> He's been _grudge-holding against_ my wife for years!"

i think this is a progressive, using the present participle of a verb
"grudge-hold", a back-formation from the "synthetic compound" noun
"grudge-holding".  i've found one example in the base form:

   Indeed they have helped some (Bill not enough as he continues to
grudge-hold and fail to utter superlatives about Barack Obama).
www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=16501&view=prin

there are also adjectival uses of the present participle:

   But what is interesting to me is that I'm not angry, mad, upset or
even grudge holding against anyone.
theprincessandjohnsy.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html

   I have trouble believing that they would be so grudge-holding
against Chris Dodd . I'll be I could search the archive of some of the
people who have been ...
letters.salon.com/4b3ed2bb0a5ccf26de474d2c208ab539/author/index864.html

and a modest number of examples of the synthetic compound noun, for
instance:

   So Snape's continued grudge holding against James was ludicrous
under the circumstances. James never used dark magic on him, ...
www.leakylounge.com/Poll-Snape-s-Love-Lily-t62828.html&pid=1721051&st=60

   I see no advantage to grudge holding against workers who only do
what they know, but I do see value in contributing to making sure
those who weren't part ...
www.m-f-d.org/topic/19.000410.4uth.php

arnold

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