A curmudgeon is a person, usually an older member of the male gender who, by virtue of having experienced the ups and downs of life, feels compelled to impart said knowledge to all who will listen and many who will not. Curmudgeons can be a tad surly and mean and must be approached with care as their ideas and opinions are delivered with a regal stubbornness certain to overwhelm the unwary.
The origin of the word is not completely known, but it has been around since at least the 1600’s. White-coated etymologists deep in their narrow warrens have come up with many theories, include the idea that curmudgeon might have been borrowed and re-spelled from the Gaelic word muigean or “disagreeable person”. Another researcher postulates that it is derived from the alternative spelling cornmudgin, or “corn-merchant”, but this interpretation has yet to gain traction.
Regardless of word origin, curmudgeons have been around for hundreds of years as shown in this ancient scroll I discovered in my investigations:
whoisfenton 