04 December 2019

Word for the day: "chunter"

"In fact, it is perfectly possible to hold both views: Johnson did deliver numerous untruths, and they were allowed to lie there like fish out of their bowl, flapping on the floor until they died. Also, Marr was pretty rude; “You’re chuntering,” he said at one point, which he never would have said to Theresa May, who chuntered constantly. I suspect a bit of professional pride, Marr smarting that he is seen as softer than Neil (he is). I also think Marr did well – and maybe it is right to be rude to a prime minister who has done so much to corrode civility and trust in such a short time."
Totally new to me, and I couldn't even guess the meaning, so I turned to Wiktionary:

    Etymology

    (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

    Verb

    chunter (third-person singular simple present chunters, present participle chuntering, simple past and past participle chuntered)
      1. (Britain, dialectal) To speak in a soft, indistinct manner, mutter.
    1. (Britain, dialectal) To grumble, complain.
The citation for meaning #1 is to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ("Ron continued to chunter under his breath all the way down the street"), so I thought perhaps it was her neologism, but at the bottom of the page I found this reference: “D. H. Lawrence gave a new lease on life to the verb to chunter, ‘to mutter, complain’, labelled “Obs. exc. dial”, when he used it in Sea and Sardinia (1921)".

So I had to go to my OED, where there are citations back to the 1600s, and some slight variations on the meaning ("to express discontent about trifles" and "to be sulky with impertinence.")

3 comments:

  1. Just after reading your post I came across the word "chunder" for the first time, which I assumed was a variant on "chunter" but (per Google) is actually Aussie/British slang for "vomit." https://twitter.com/RussKinks/status/1201851455038279680

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    Replies
    1. Susan, it seems, according to this, that there is/or can be/a relation between chunder and chunter. Chunder | Definition of Chunder at Dictionary.com
      https://www.dictionary.com › browse › chunder
      1920–25; orig. variously explained; perhaps ultimately an expressive formation akin to dial. (mainly N England) chunder grumble, complain; cf. chunter.

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  2. I've heard 'chunner' before thanks to Brian Jacques, but never 'chunter'. The definitions are similar enough that I assume they must be related.

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