gripe

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Oct 18, 2010, at 10:06 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:
>
> 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.

(i'd gloss it roughly as 'piss someone off', but without the taboo tinge.)

the usage is natural for me, so natural that i have no idea how long i've been saying it.  but i *have* had the experience of it causing other people to break out in asterisks, so that i've been aware for some time that it's not exactly widespread.
>
> My experience tends to confirm that it is has not been common in the
> Northeast.  It may be a little old-fashioned these days.

no idea what its geographical/social distribution is like.

my own linguistic experience was all in (various parts of) the Northeast until i was 25. of course that was a long time ago.

arnold

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