Be-Worded: Gruntled

If I tell you I am gruntled, how are you going to react? (My spell check reacted by underlining the word in a red squiggly line.) Will you offer me a tissue and sympathy? Or maybe a hot cup of herbal tea or a nice glass of wine? Will you conjecture that maybe I have been spending too much time around swine and offer to take me someplace civilized, such as a movie or a bookstore? Or maybe you will encourage me to gargle.

If I tell you I am gruntled, the correct reaction would be to offer me congratulations. My Oxford English Dictionary (OED), defines “gruntled” as an adjective meaning, “Pleased, satisfied, content,” a “back formation” of “disgruntled.” (A back formation is a word created by removing an affix—in this case the negative prefix “dis”—from the original word.) While the OED does not mark “gruntled” as archaic or obsolete, my American Heritage College Dictionary does not include the word. An on-line search found current definitions of the word from modern on-line dictionaries. Under the heading of “People Ask” is the question “Is ‘gruntled’ a word?” The answer is yes.

P.G. Wodehouse, according to the OED first used “gruntled” in 1938 in his book, Code of Woosters. Bertie Wooster, an English gentleman, makes this observation about his valet, Jeeves: “He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.” I ran across the word in Zadie Smith’s debut novel of 2000, White Teeth in which Smith alludes to this usage: “When Archie returned to table eight, Samad was like Jeeves: if not exactly disgruntled, then some way from being gruntled.” Of course, I had to look up the word. The last example which the OED lists of “gruntled” comes from 1967. Ms. Smith’s usage of the word has captured my imagination. I think it is time for the word “gruntled” to make a comeback (like Elvis in 1968.)

We have recently marked not only the beginning of a new year, but of a new decade as well. I am not a big one for making new years resolutions, but this year I made a few serious ones. One of them is the resolution to be more gruntled. Here's wishing you, reader, a new year filled with great gruntlement!

I presented this piece to my Writing Circle. They asked the question, since people can be gruntled, can they be ungruntled and regruntled? Hmm.

Happy 85th birthday to Elvis!

LAGNIAPPE: Things that make me gruntled: