Other forms: curmudgeons
A curmudgeon is a bad-tempered person who grumbles at everything. An old curmudgeon, a lovable curmudgeon, curmudgeonly remarks.
It is affectionate as often as not, and the standard phrase pairs it with old. The origin is genuinely unknown, and the confident explanations that circulate are all inventions.
1nouncurmudgeonA bad-tempered person who grumbles at everything.
“The curmudgeon next door shouts at children whenever their ball lands in his garden.”
curmudgeon is a person.
curMUDgeon → stuck in the MUD of his own temper
The old man stuck in the mud of his own bad mood, growling at anyone who comes near.
hooks ontomud
Of unknown origin, first recorded around 1577; the confident explanations that circulate are inventions.
Built from
unknown folk etymologies exist for this word. An alternative spelling attested in 1600 is cornmudgin, in Holland's translation of Livy, rendering frūmentārius (“corn-merchant”). This has been suggested as the original form of the word, but OED notes that curmudgeon is attested some years before this, concluding that cornmudgin was merely a nonce-word by Holland. The word is attested from the late 1500s in the forms curmudgeon and curmudgen, and during the 17th century in numerous spelling variants, including cormogeon, cormogion, cormoggian, cormudgeon, curmudgion, curmuggion, curmudgin, curr-mudgin, curre-megient.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA