grudge

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gruggen, also grudgen and grucgen,^[2][3][4] an altered form of grucchen (“to murmur, grumble”) (the later grutch),^{[5][2][6][7][8]} which is borrowed from Old French grouchier (“to murmur, grumble”), also groucier and grocier.^[5][4][9][6] The OED suggests that the alteration may have been influenced by the obsolete verb gregge.^[5] The French verb is of unknown origin in the OED, Hoad and Barnhart;^[5][6][3] Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster derive it from Germanic, comparing Middle High German grogezen (“to howl, lament”),^[10][2] Collins compares Old High German grunnizōn (“to grunt”),^[11] and Skeat and Partridge think it ultimately imitative, like grunt and growl.^[12][13] The noun is from the verb, or a variant of the noun grutch.^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To murmur, grumble, complain: Barnhart finds the form grucgen before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible, and the earlier grucchen probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[3] The OED's first record of the spelling grudge is from 1461, in the Paston letters,^[5][3] and Etymonline dates the verb to the mid-15th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Trench (1859) noted that the verb once meant open complaint, doing the work of "to murmur": the Wycliffite Bible's Pharisees grutchiden (Luke 15:2), and the English Bible still has "grudge if they be not satisfied" (Psalm 59:15).^[14][15] The modern sense "to give or allow unwillingly, to begrudge" appears about 1500,^[5][3][7] while the old sense "to grumble" died out in standard English in the 17th century and survived in Scots.^[5][8][16] The noun first meant grumbling and discontent (1477), and also a misgiving of the conscience, before settling on ill will due to a particular cause;^[5] to have or bear a grudge against is recorded from 1531.^[5][3] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "old quarrel; inveterate malevolence".^[17] In the 16th century the verb could also mean to show the first signs of a fever, and the noun such a first touch of illness.^[5][8]

Timeline

• before 1200 – grucchen, to murmur, grumble.^[3]
• before 1382 – grucgen, to grumble, complain.^[3]
• 1461 – spelling grudge, to grumble.^[5][3]
• 1477 – noun, grumbling, discontent (obsolete by 1611); ill will due to a particular cause.^[5] Barnhart dates the noun to 1459.^[3]
• c. 1500 – to give or allow unwillingly.^[5][3]
• before 1513 – to show the first signs of a fever (obsolete by 1549).^[5]
• 1531 – a grudge against someone.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lasting feeling of resentment or ill will caused by a particular wrong: He has held a grudge against his cousin for years.^[11][2][5]
2. (attributive) Played or fought to settle such a feeling: a grudge game between two neighbouring towns.^[11][2]

Verb

1. To give or allow something unwillingly: She grudged every minute spent in meetings.^[11][2][5]
2. To feel resentful or envious of someone's good fortune; to begrudge.^[11][2]
3. (obsolete except in Scotland) To grumble or complain.^[8][5][16]

Word family

• grudger
• grudgingly
• grudgeless
• grudging
• begrudge

Related words

• grutch
• grouch
• grouse

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes grudge, resentment kept up over a real or imagined wrong, from malice, the wish to see others harmed, and spite, a petty and often sudden resentment shown in small acts of retaliation.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.