Brewer's: Curmudgeon

(3 syl.). A grasping, miserly churl. Dr. Johnson gives the derivation of this word thus, “coeur mechant, unknown correspondent.” Dr. Ash, in his dictionary, says, “coeur, unknown; merchant, correspondent,” a blunder only paralleled by the schoolboy translation of the Greek, me genoito, by mh (God) geuoito (forbid) (Luke xx. 6).

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