[lit-ideas] Re: Whinger... (Was: Thinks...)

D. Ritchie wrote: 
"A  whinger is one who whinges.  
Paradoxically, he [they] may be  silenced
with a  "whinger." 
T. Fjeld asks:

>But then wouldn't it add up to
>"Whingers are those who  whinge. [or is she who whinges]
>Homonymically," etc. ?
Mmm. Only I would not say 'homonymically' there -- but 'heteronymically'?  
The OED has two entries: 
'whinger-1', the dagger, 
and 
'whinger-2',  unrelated:
she who whinges. 
Quotes for 'whinger-2' below. I suppose the context -- in Scotland -- would  
make it more or less obvious what 'whinger' is involved (or 'meant' or  
'implicated'). This is notably _not_ a case of ambiguity, but heteronymy and  
homonymy (as with 'vyse' and 'vice', etc.). 
Cheers,
JL
'whinger-2':
[she who whinges]
1791 J. LEARMONT Poems 312 
I'll nae act the whinger's  part, 
Like bairnies discontentit. 
1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 27 June  11/2 
Touching the query about  â??whingerâ??.., â??winjerâ?? was accepted slang for 
â??
grumblerâ?? at Q. Uni. a few years  ago, and probably still is. I have seldom 
heard 
it elsewhere, and no one who  uses it seems to know the derivation. 
1959 I. & P. OPIE  Lore & Lang. Schoolch. x. 186 
Other local terms for  crying... In Dublin the usual word is â??whingingâ??, 
hence â??whingerâ??, a term also  still used in Cumberland, and occasionally 
heard 
in Liverpool. 
1983 Listener 14 Apr. 17/2 
Certainly, no whinger like me  will ever turn Simon into a  dissident.


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