gripe

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nope.

JL

On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 8:13 PM, Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at wmich.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: gripe
>
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>
> There's also "gi(v)es me the grue" (Makes me sick) and "gi(v)es me the
> boak"--the last one, historically bowk (and still that in Northern England)
> is usually a verb, to vomit.  "grue", I think, is the same word as the
> beginning of "gruesome".  Don't know if either of these words made it over
> here to the US.
>
> Paul Johnston
>
> On Oct 18, 2010, at 7:56 PM, Robin Hamilton wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: gripe
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >> Note: common British _pissed_ 'drunk' is poorly attested in the U.S.
> >> before
> >> ca1980 and is still infrequent.  British _piss off_ 'go away' is
> likewise
> >> recent and infrequent here.  I suspect that what currency they each have
> >> comes significantly from exposure to British rock culture.
> >>
> >> JL
> >
> > "Pissed" (drunk) and "pissed off" (annoyed, as in "I'm pissed off," "that
> > really pisses me off") along with "piss off!" (go away) coexist in
> current
> > British English.  Dunno to what degree some of these locutions reflect
> > American usage.
> >
> > But as for "gripe", there's the possibly analogous British expression,
> "that
> > gives me the gip [sic, pronounced <djip>]", literally, causes a stabbing
> > pain in my intestine but more usually found in the metaphorical form,
> > "annoys me", "gets right up my nose".
> >
> > Much to my surprise, "gives me the gip" seems to be sparsely attested on
> any
> > of the three googles, whether general, news, or books.  Odd that, but --
> > thought the phrase was common as dirt.
> >
> > (Probably totally unconnected, and possibly an artefact of the
> translation
> > process, but in 1528 Johann Faust was apparently told by the good burgers
> of
> > Ingolstadt to piss off out of town.  The translation reads, "told to
> spend
> > his penny elsewhere".)
> >
> > Robin
> >
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