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Word of the Day for Saturday February 5, 2005

   kvetch \KVECH\, intransitive verb:
   To complain habitually.

   noun:
   1. A complaint.
   2. A habitual complainer.

     People  kvetched  when someone else wouldn't relinquish his
     position.
     --Barry  Lopez,  "Before  the  Temple of Fire." [1]Harper's
     Magazine, January 1998

     They  begin  to  look like malcontents who kvetch about the
     weather so much that they don't notice the sun coming out.
     --David  Shenk,  "Slamming  Gates,"  [2]The  New  Republic,
     January 26, 1998

     Time for my biennial kvetch about the West End theatre.
     --Simon  Hoggart,  "Hose  bans, petrol mania: saying 'don't
     panic' always triggers chaos," [3]The Guardian, November 4,
     2000

     "He's  just  a  very  up  person,"  she says, which is odd,
     because he is also a big complainer, a class-A kvetch.
     --Penny Wolfson, "Moonrise," [4]The Atlantic, December 2001

     He had difficulty getting American publishers for his later
     novels, partly because of his self-created image by then as
     a crusty old kvetch.
     --Geoffrey  Wheatcroft,  "What  Kingsley Can Teach Martin,"
     [5]The Atlantic, September 2000
     _________________________________________________________

   Kvetch  comes from Yiddish kvetshn, "to squeeze, to complain,"
   from Middle High German quetzen, quetschen, "to squeeze."

References

   1. http://www.harpers.org/
   2. http://www.thenewrepublic.com/
   3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian
   4. http://www.theatlantic.com/
   5. http://www.theatlantic.com/

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation

   http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=kvetch

Note: Audio pronunciation available only to Premium members.
To learn more about the benefits of Premium membership,
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