gripe

[Jonathan Lighter]

As HDAS reveals, to "gripe someone" has been pretty frequent at the slang
level in the 20th Century. (First ex., 1927). The usual nuance, however, is
"to anger or annoy," generally with an inanimate subject.

My experience tends to confirm that it is has not been common in the
Northeast.  It may be a little old-fashioned these days.

JL


On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 12:16 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      gripe
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>
>  I am most used to the meaning of the verb "gripe" as a version of
> "complain". That seems to correspond to definition 10. of OED "gripe
> v.1" entry.
>
> > 10. intr. To complain, ‘grouse’. So {sm}griping vbl. n. slang (orig.
> > U.S.).
> > 1932 Amer. Speech June 332 Gripe, to complain. 1934 F. SCOTT
> > FITZGERALD Tender is Night II. i. 153 In some moods he griped at his
> > own reasoning: Could I help it. 1940 New Yorker 21 Sept. 37 He got
> > good and sore and griped. 1945 E. FORD Larry Scott v. 51 I've already
> > told him that the newspaper game is a lousy business, so you can save
> > your griping for somebody else. 1947 D. M. DAVIN Gorse blooms Pale 199
> > Old Snow was griping away about his girl turning him down. 1959 Times
> > Lit. Suppl. 20 Nov. 678/1 Let us get the griping over quickly. 1963
> > Time 30 Aug. 18/2 Ike..griped publicly: ‘There are too many of these
> > generals who have all sorts of ideas.’ 1967 Boston Traveler 27/2
> > People are always griping about kids hanging around and being at the
> > wrong places at the wrong time.
>
> The only other subentry that has any pretense of "modern" support
> quotations is #7.
>
> > 7. To grieve, afflict, distress.
> > 1559 Mirr. Mag., Mowbray's Banishm. xxix, Grief gryped me so, I pyned
> > awaye and dyed. 1567 DRANT Horace, Art of Poetry Bvj, Those which
> > inwardly with griefe Are gryped in their minde. 1593 SHAKES. 3 Hen.
> > VI, I. iv. 171 How inly Sorrow gripes his Soule. 1671 J. FLAVEL Fount.
> > Life xxiii. 70 How sick was his conscience as soon as he had swallowed
> > it! It grip'd him to the heart. 1871 B. TAYLOR Faust I. ix. 150 What
> > ails thee? What is 't gripes thee, elf? A face like thine beheld I
> > never. 1905 R. BEACH Pardners (1912) i. 29. It gripes me to hear a man
> > cry. 1941 J. M. CAIN Mildred Pierce (1943) 88 What's griping him is
> > that he can't do anything for the kids.
>
> This appears to be very close to the usage that brought me to look it up:
>
> http://bit.ly/9JfINv
> > "I had nothing to do with the filing of the petition. *It really
> > gripes me* that people accuse me of having had something to do with
> > that," Marshall said. "Had I wanted to get this done it would have
> > been done a long time ago. It would not have been brought up at the
> > very last minute."
>
> I don't know how common the expression is in general, but I have never
> heard #7 in the Northeast, although #10 is quite common. I might have
> heard it on TV ... once. Has it become a regionalism? Or is it yet again
> just my sheltered existence?
>
> VS-)
>
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