I'm Just a Big Ol' Curmudgeon (or Crumudgeon)

So what's got me in such a negative mood anyway? Well, nothing really, but I was thinking about some things and it occurred to me that I might just be a bit on the curmudgeonly side. Strangely enough, it's the word "Curmudgeon" itself that's got me thinking this way.

I was writing a (friendly) response to a friend on Facebook where I referred to myself as being a curmudgeon. But I didn't spell the word that way. Instead I spelled it the way I THOUGHT it was spelled: "Crumudgeon". Instantly the little red lines appeared under the word to let me know I had made a mistake. Looking at the word I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. So I did what I usually do in those situations--I Googled it. Needless to say the word came up as "Curmudgeon" and I was left wondering what had just happened to me. I suppose the good thing that came out of this experience is that it has just proven once again that you really can "learn something new every day". But the bad thing was the realization that I'm getting close to being fifty years old(!) and I didn't know how to spell the word curmudgeon. Sure, it's not a very common word and it is kind of long and ungainly, but I had gone for nearly fifty years thinking it was spelled differently.

The odd thing was that this realization kind of got me feeling even more curmudgeon-like. It might have been simply a case of familiarity, but after nearly half a century with the incorrect spelling in my head I really felt that "Crumudgeon" was a better word than the correct "Curmudgeon". Doesn't it sound more negative? The "Crum" part makes one think of feeling crummy, or the word crumb, which leads (at least for me) to the insulting term "Crumb-Bum" (or "Crum-Bum"), which is quite negative sounding itself.

 

It's true that the actual root of the word, "Cur" has probably even more of a negative connotation according to another Google search: "an aggressive dog or one that is in poor condition, especially a mongrel". And how about its sub-definition: "a contemptible man"? I will admit that "Cur" probably DOES make more sense, but "Crum" SOUNDS worse, doesn't it? And who uses the word "Cur" these days anyway? Maybe it's time to re-think the word curmudgeon (or at least its spelling) for the current world we're living in. Who's with me?

Does all this gnashing of the teeth over the spelling of curmudgeon necessarily make me a curmudgeon (or even a crumudgeon) myself? Maybe not on its own. But another issue came up while I was unexpectedly "researching" this post. My Google search for the word curmudgeon brought up the definition of the word: "a bad tempered person, especially an old one." That's a pretty short and concise definition right there, and it kind of hit me at my core. Not only have I been feeling a bit bad-tempered (actually only a little bit, but still...), but as I mentioned above, I'm nearly fifty. That means that I am OLD. And that means that I now fit into the second part of the curmudgeon definition! I think that would make anyone feel a bit curmudgeonly, wouldn't you?

I hope to get out of this mood very soon and that I don't permanently become one of those old curmudgeons like Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet Show. I've always thought of myself as being more like Kermit or Fozzy. But, perhaps, in reality the fact is that time and age are forcing the true curmudgeon in me to come out. We shall see. But in the meantime I now have even MORE reason to feel like a curmudgeon at this particular moment. As I was writing THIS VERY POST I had to leave it as a draft to tend to something else. Upon returning to the site I saw TWO entries for the post (even though I have no idea how the second one managed to find its way there). Upon realizing that one contained my draft and one was just an empty post I deleted the empty one. Or at least I THOUGHT I did. I forgot that once you open a post to edit it (which I did to check which one had content and which one didn't), it jumps to the top of your post list. So, yes, I (naturally) ended up deleting the half-composed post rather than the empty one by mistake, and had to start all over again! Let's hope the rest of the day goes better...