Whinging vs. whining.
shockdiamond
Here in North America, we use 'whine', but have never heard of 'whinge'.
I gather the difference is that 'whine' is specific to an event, while
'whinge' refers to more generalized discontent.
What's the real difference?
Roxana
"complaining"
shockdiamond <dor...@nalgon.net> schrieb in im Newsbeitrag:
8wzy8.18485$f5.1405408@news...
david56
Whining is a tone of voice used to make a complaint. Whinging is the
act of making the complaint, but can be acted via in any form of
communication - I whinged until I got an Executive pass to a conference
last week, but I used formal business language in emails - this could
not be described as whining.
--
David
I say what it occurs to me to say.
The address is valid today, but I will change it to keep ahead of the
spammers.
shockdiamond
Here, whining isn't just the sound - its the act of lamenting some
situation in a register that implies the speaker should be pitied.
It seems that 'whinging' is like that too, but maybe lighter on the
begging. :>
"david56" <bass.a...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:3CCBDDA9...@ntlworld.com...
Phil C.
> >
> > Here in North America, we use 'whine', but have never heard of
'whinge'.
> >
> > I gather the difference is that 'whine' is specific to an event,
while
> > 'whinge' refers to more generalized discontent.
> >
> > What's the real difference?
>
> Whining is a tone of voice used to make a complaint. Whinging is the
> act of making the complaint, but can be acted via in any form of
> communication - I whinged until I got an Executive pass to a
conference
> last week, but I used formal business language in emails - this could
> not be described as whining.
"Whinge" has its own ancient etymology and seems to have been Scottish
dialect. I believe it was little used in most of UK before Australian
soaps became popular. Neither my 1850 Imperial dictionary nor my 1987
Collins Dictionary includes it. It now seems to be preferred and has
pushed "whine" into a more specialised meaning. MW sees the two as
synonymous.
I'm never sure whether the present participle is "whinging" or
"whingeing". Google has 17,800 hits for whinging and 9,040 for
whingeing. I prefer the latter though - I wouldn't write cringing or
hinging. MW gives whingeing but hing'ing and cring'ing so that's a big
help.
--
Phil C.
_______________________________
philandwoody"at"meem"dot"freeserve"dot"co"dot"uk
Matthew M. Huntbach
> On Sat, 27 Apr 2002 18:30:53 +0200, "Roxana" <pa...@bluewin.ch> wrote:
> }I know only that in Australia for example they use to say "whinging" meaning
> }"complaining"
> I whinge at idiots that top post.
> moving things can whine.
Yes, "whine" refers to an actual sound, whereas "whinge" refers to the
act of complaining (which may be in a whining tone of voice).
But no-one seems to have noted that "whinge" has a pejorative air about it.
I'd say it means not just "complain" but "complain excessively" or
"complain in situations which a more mature person would just accept" or
"complain in an irritating manner".
Matthew Huntbach
Dave Swindell
<nob...@nowhere.co.uk> writes
>
>"david56" <bass.a...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
>news:3CCBDDA9...@ntlworld.com...
>> shockdiamond wrote:
>> >
>> > Here in North America, we use 'whine', but have never heard of
>'whinge'.
>> >
>> > I gather the difference is that 'whine' is specific to an event,
>while
>> > 'whinge' refers to more generalized discontent.
>> >
>> > What's the real difference?
>>
>> Whining is a tone of voice used to make a complaint. Whinging is the
>> act of making the complaint, but can be acted via in any form of
>> communication - I whinged until I got an Executive pass to a
>conference
>> last week, but I used formal business language in emails - this could
>> not be described as whining.
>
>"Whinge" has its own ancient etymology and seems to have been Scottish
>dialect. I believe it was little used in most of UK before Australian
>soaps became popular. Neither my 1850 Imperial dictionary nor my 1987
>Collins Dictionary includes it. It now seems to be preferred and has
>pushed "whine" into a more specialised meaning. MW sees the two as
>synonymous.
>
family dialect was mixed London, Bucks and Liverpool.
--
Dave OSOS#24 dswindel...@tcp.co.uk Remove my gerbil for email replies
Yamaha XJ900S & Wessex sidecar, the sexy one
Yamaha XJ900F & Watsonian Monaco, the comfortable one
Einde O'Callaghan
reference to English immigrants in Oz.
Regards, Einde O'Callaghan
Phil C.
news:ljlBlJA+...@tcp.co.uk...
Well I was pretty common folk back then and whinge sounded distinctly
odd to me when I first heard it in spite of family in London and Bucks.
I recall it being described at the time as an Australian version of
whine. It's not in my 1975 Oxford Dictionary nor my 1962 Roget. It must
have had limited currency until recent years(?)
http://www.word-detective.com/121800.html suggests it's a Scottish and
N. English version of whine. Various dictionaries give it as Scottish
and used by Burns.
Various websites give it as distinctly Antipodean slang e.g
http://www.koalanet.com/australian-slang.html
Has anybody got any reference to the extent of its use in Britain
before, say, the 1980s?
Dr Robin Bignall
wrote:
I agree with you, Phil. I always write 'whingeing' because 'whinging'
sounds as though it ought to have a hard-ish 'g' in the middle, like
'singing'.
--
wrmst rgrds
RB...(docrobi...@ntlworld.com)
Einde O'Callaghan
>
> "Dave Swindell" <dswindel...@tcp.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:ljlBlJA+...@tcp.co.uk...
> > In article <aaj9t2$cd4$1...@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk>, Phil C.
> > <nob...@nowhere.co.uk> writes
> > >
> > >"david56" <bass.a...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> > >news:3CCBDDA9...@ntlworld.com...
> > >
> > >"Whinge" has its own ancient etymology and seems to have been
> Scottish
> > >dialect. I believe it was little used in most of UK before Australian
> > >soaps became popular. Neither my 1850 Imperial dictionary nor my 1987
> > >Collins Dictionary includes it. It now seems to be preferred and has
> > >pushed "whine" into a more specialised meaning. MW sees the two as
> > >synonymous.
>
> > Whinge was common enough for us common folk in the 1940s and '50s. My
> > family dialect was mixed London, Bucks and Liverpool.
>
> Well I was pretty common folk back then and whinge sounded distinctly
> odd to me when I first heard it in spite of family in London and Bucks.
> I recall it being described at the time as an Australian version of
> whine. It's not in my 1975 Oxford Dictionary nor my 1962 Roget. It must
> have had limited currency until recent years(?)
>
> http://www.word-detective.com/121800.html suggests it's a Scottish and
> N. English version of whine. Various dictionaries give it as Scottish
> and used by Burns.
>
> Various websites give it as distinctly Antipodean slang e.g
>
> http://www.koalanet.com/australian-slang.html
>
> Has anybody got any reference to the extent of its use in Britain
> before, say, the 1980s?
I recall my mother using it in the 1950s in the west of Ireland. The
references that I mentioned earlier to "whinging - or whingeing - Poms"
date back to the 1970s - perhaps even the 1960s.
According to my Concise Oxford Dictionary (7th edition, 1982) "whinge"
is dialect or Australian. It means both "whine" and "grumble peevishly"
and has a separate etymology from "whine", which apparently has its
roots in Old Norse, whereas "whinge" has its roots in Old English,
cognate with Old High German.
I seem to remember the term from the Barry McKenzie cartoon in Private
Eye, but I had no problem understanding what it meant. I didn't consider
it to be a particularly Australian term, unlike "chunder" or "tinnie".
Of course, Barry McKenzie was famous for his "one-eyed trouser snake".
Regards, Einde O'Callaghan
Jeffrey Goldberg
in <3CCBDDA9...@ntlworld.com>:
> Whining is a tone of voice used to make a complaint. Whinging is the
> act of making the complaint, but can be acted via in any form of
> communication
But "whinging" is specifically a sort of annoying, disproportionate
complaining, and not just any complaining. That is, whining would be an
appropriate means of whinging.
In the US (which lacks the wonderful word "whinging") "whining" is often
sometimes used to mean "whinging".
-j
--
Jeffrey Goldberg http://www.goldmark.org/jeff/
Relativism is the triumph of authority over truth, convention over justice
I rarely read top-posted, over-quoting or HTML postings.
Peter Duncanson
... or at least to those English immigrants who whinged. It
seems to have been a large enough proportion to have been
noticeable and irritating.
ISTR that I first heard of whingeing POMs in the 1950s/60s.
Sometime around then there was a scheme for migrants from UK to
travel to Oz for the princely sum of 10UKP - almost free.
A lot of those who migrated seemed to have expected Oz to be
just like their own home towns only better. It may well have
been better, but it was different. The whingers were the ones
who were perpetually complaining that things were no good, i.e.
different from what they were used to and what they expected.
I don't know whether any sociological study of these people has
been performed. It would be no surprise to learn that many were
moaners and whining malcontents long before they set foot in the
fair land of Australia.
--
Peter D.
UK - of Australian parentage.
shockdiamond
Interesting stuff. Word origins are tied in with people's personal
history, are they not?
Thanks again to all.
"Peter Duncanson" <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote in message
news:58ntcusig32m2pdj8...@4ax.com...
Peter Harris
"Einde O'Callaghan" <einde.oc...@planet-interkom.de> wrote in message
news:3CCDAC01...@planet-interkom.de...
>
> I seem to remember the term from the Barry McKenzie cartoon in Private
> Eye, but I had no problem understanding what it meant. I didn't consider
> it to be a particularly Australian term, unlike "chunder" or "tinnie".
>
> Of course, Barry McKenzie was famous for his "one-eyed trouser snake".
I've got a little creature, I suppose you'd call him a pet,
But if there's something wrong with him I don't have to call the vet.
He goes everywhere that I go whether sleeping or awake,
Gawd help me if I ever lost me little one-eyed trouser snake.
One day I got to reading in an old sky-pilot's book,
About two starkers bastards who made the Lord go crook.
It reckoned it was a serpent that made Eve the apple take,
Cripes! That was no flamin' serpent it was Adam's one-eyed trouser snake.
I met an arty Shiela, I'd never met before,
And something kind of told me that she banged like a shithouse door!
She said "Come up and see me etchings", Cripes, I hope they're not a fake,
I said "The only thing that's etchin' is me one-eyed trouser snake".
(Cripes, that was a bit on the crudish side)
I used to read it too.
Peter Harris