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English Grudging Sense Century John Word Grudge Give

Grudging describes something done, given, or allowed unwillingly or reluctantly. It comes from the verb 'grudge', meaning to grumble or give reluctantly.

Grudging describe algo hecho, dado o permitido de mala gana o con reticencia. Proviene del verbo 'grudge', que significa quejarse o dar a regañadientes.

Word grudging
Date April 21, 2018
Type adjective
Syllables GRUH-jing
Etymology In the 15th century, English jurist Sir John Fortescue observed, "Somme . . . obtayne gretter rewardis than thei have disserved, and yit grugge, seying they have [too] litill." Fortescue's grugge (an early spelling of the verb grudge) meant "to grumble and complain," just like its Middle English forerunner, grucchen, and the Anglo-French word grucer, which gave rise to the English forms. English speakers had adopted the "complain" sense of grudge by the late 13th century, and a century later they had added the extended sense "to give reluctantly." That second sense may have developed because people associated grudge with the related word begrudge (meaning "to give reluctantly," as in "I begrudged him a second chance.") Grudging, which developed from grudge, made its English debut in the 1530s.
Examples "The class differences between teacher and students are so pronounced that they threaten to plunge the film into a schoolhouse drama—that well-worn genre in which a charismatic authority figure, inevitably likable yet inevitably tough, gains her students' grudging respect and eventual trust." — Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times, 22 Mar. 2018

"There is no grudging marriage of art and politics in her work; as John Berger, one of her longtime interlocutors and a formative influence, wrote, 'Far from my dragging politics into art, art has dragged me into politics.' [Arundhati] Roy's work conveys a similar spirit." — Parul Sehgal, The Atlantic, 17 June 2017
Definition 1 : unwilling, reluctant
2 : done, given, or allowed unwillingly, reluctantly, or sparingly

Tags: wordoftheday::adjective

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