Words at Play
Prat
Although Merriam-Webster is a dictionary of American English, it contains a range of words rarely heard outside Britain. Here are some of our favourites.
Definition - a stupid or foolish person
Prat has been British slang for the sort of person with whom you’d rather not share a long train journey since the middle of the 20th century. Prior to this the word served a number of other useful functions, with such meanings as “the buttocks” and “to nudge or push (as a person) with the buttocks.” A pratfall, now commonly used to mean “a humiliating mishap or blunder,” originally meant “a fall on the buttocks.”
Quote:
"His father was ailing and Ravel dearly wanted him to see the première." (Silly prat: did he not know why the father was ailing? Could he not have stopped his febrile pacing and enquired whether there might be any connection between the father’s illness and this opera?)
— Frank Delaney, Punch (London, Eng.), 26 Aug. 1987
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Whinge
Definition - to complain fretfully: whine
Whinge and whine may look like simple variants, but the two words are fairly distinct, with meanings and histories that are independent. Whinge comes from an Old English word, hwinsian, meaning “to wait or moan discontentedly,” whereas whine comes from the Old English hwinan (“to make a humming or whirring sound”). Whinge, in use since the 12th century, has always had a meaning related to complaining; whine, on the other hand, did not begin to have its now-familiar meaning until the 16th century.
Quote:
O it is a sweet thing ay to be whinging, and crying, and seeking about Christ's Pantry Doors, and to hold ay an Eye upon Christ when he goes into the House of Wine, into His Fathers fair Luckie Wine-Celler where there are many Wines, and bout in at Christ's back.
— Samuel Rutherford, Christs Napkin, 1660
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Source:
Words at Play: Please Don't Whinge About Being Knackered, You Prat