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Ask HN: Preferred word to describe “Unnecessarily complainsome grumpy person”?
I started reading HN fairly recently, the posters here struck me as having a different distribution of recurring (non-technical) vocabulary that is quite different from other platforms.
I think that besides the obvious age distribution factor, the spectrum of social scenarios more frequently encountered by the HN demographic probably also contributes to certain common situations or stereotypes promoting/stimulating the use of more apt descriptions for them, whereas for those who less frequently encounter them there would be no occasion to dig out a dictionary word from memory to describe it.
For example, there seems to be a particular adjective that sees pretty frequent usage, used to label “cranky jaded programmer being unnecessarily complain-some or dismissive of new ideas”, which I only learned because of repeated occurrence on HN, but the actual word seems to escape me. I remember that it seems to be not too dictionary-obscure of a word, just that there seems to fewer occasions that calls for it in other online conversations.
What is the first word that comes to your mind when describing such a person?
- greggarious 4y agoornery (comparative ornerier, superlative orneriest) (Appalachia) Cantankerous, stubborn, disagreeable. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ornery https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ornery
- liveduo 4y agoFrom wikipedia: Torvalds sarcastically quipped about the name git (which means "unpleasant person" in British English slang): "I'm an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. First 'Linux', now 'git'."
- ihatepython 4y agoHe should have chosen 'Freax', it's a much better name
- reducesuffering 4y agogrouch
- Veen 4y agoWhinger.
- PuffinBlue 4y agoCurmudgeon, Naysayer, Grouch
- xeonmc 4y ago> Curmudgeon That's it. Thanks.
- boredhedgehog 4y agoNot an adjective though.
- arethuza 4y agocurmudgeonly?
- SanjayMehta 4y agoThat's a fancy way of saying "realist."
- bartread 4y agoJust be aware that, at least in British English, whilst "curmudgeon" can be used in an exclusively negative sense, it can also carry some "cuddlier" overtones and be used as something of a term of endearment.
- sam_lowry_ 4y ago> Curmudgeon How sexist! Curmudgeon / termagant.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- irjoe 4y agocurmudgeon
- Tepix 4y agoold fart, pessimistic, realistic, comfort zone slightly related: I like the definition of "programmer" at urban dictionary: A person who is paid to professionally scream at a computer. Programmer: "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-oh, it works."
- bartread 4y ago> A person who is paid to professionally scream at a computer. Sounds like that was probably written by somebody who used to work either with me, or with one or two of my former colleagues.
- janmarsal 4y agoHey, that's me!
- DukeSanoj 4y agoMiesepeter, if you like to borrow from german
- jgaa 4y agointelligent ;)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Hamuko 4y agoCantankerous. It's basically my nickname.
- kgwxd 4y agoExperienced
- aquir 4y agoGoblin
- sph 4y agoThese days it's been superseded by the idea of "going full goblin" or "goblin mode" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_mode https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_mode
- dr_dshiv 4y agoA Grump
- mozman 4y ago[flagged]
- jimkleiber 4y agoCrochety might also work.
- telebell 4y agoA kvetch. If you need a word for something/someone annoying, unreasonable, unpleasant, lazy, cantankerous or absurd, Yiddish is here for you.
- lloydatkinson 4y agoTIL Yiddish has a word that accurately describes a majority of HN users
- hprotagonist 4y agoI'm also fond of "[obdurate|inveterate] pedant"
- katspaugh 4y agoIn German, "Quatsch" means nonsense.
- FlyingSnake 4y agoI thought of the same word, Quatsch. The Yiddish word probably shares the same roots.
- captainmuon 4y agoI always thought it is related to "quetschen" (squeezing). A kvetsh is somebody who is being squeezed and winces or squeaks (and incidentally, to squeak=quietschen).
- katspaugh 4y agoOh, you’re absolutely right. Oxford dictionary says: > 1960s: from Yiddish kvetsh (noun), kvetshn (verb), from Middle High German quetschen, literally ‘crush’.
- schwartzworld 4y agoI always learned kvetch to mean a complainer (or the act of complaining itself). I don't think this carries with it the implication that the person is unpleasant, much less lazy or absurd.
- quickthrower2 4y agoGrinch
- spencerchubb 4y agoCynic
- benrapscallion 4y agoI asked ChatGPT. Response: A person who unnecessarily complains and is grumpy might be described as a "grouch," "crank," "curmudgeon," or "grump." These words suggest someone who is habitually irritable and unhappy, and tends to complain or find fault with things unnecessarily.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ineedausername 4y agoinvestor
- kranner 4y agodisagreeable
- stcg 4y agoIn Dutch I would say 'zeurkous' (literally translated 'whiny stocking') meaning something like 'grouch'
- dspillett 4y agoThe act of always complaining or otherwise being difficult is often called being cantankerous, though there isn't a direct noun for that. There are a few words that might fit what you are looking for, of which I think the best is “curmudgeon”, and for lexical flexibility you can act curmudgeonly or be curmudgeonous. I'm not sure that curmudgeonous is a “real” word, spellcheckers refuse it and I rarely if ever see it elsewhere, but I like it as it essentially means the same as cantankerous but with less of a sharp edge - the difference between just naturally being difficult (curmudgeonous) and actively trying to be difficult (cantankerous). Both are often associated with older people more than younger, though in the fast moving world of tech you don't have to be very old to appear to have ancient views!
- readthenotes1 4y agoyou're such a cantanker!
- bovermyer 4y agoNerfbait, if Nerf guns are allowed at the office.
- maverick66 4y agoSomebody once called me irksome which I rather took as a compliment and I think is great for this definition.
- mikewarot 4y agoI'm a crochety old grumpy greybeard, now get off my lawn! ;-)
- cassianoleal 4y agoHonestly, just call me by my name ffs...