Learn English – Does anyone use both “whinge” and “whine?”

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The words "whinge" and "whine" have separate (albeit very similar) definitions in the OED, and they have distinct pronunciations. "Whinge" seems completely restricted to BritE; I have never heard it spoken in the US. I don't know if "whine" is ever used in BritE. In other words, I'm not clear on whether they are variant spellings, or really two distinct words. If they are distinct, then does anyone use both words? Would anyone ever say "whining and whinging?"

Best Answer

Both terms are used in British English, though whine is the more common:

Grammarphobia tries to explain the difference in usage:

  • We don’t use it in the U.S. Why is it used in Britain?

  • In modern English, “whinge” and “whine” generally mean the same thing, though “whinge” (it rhymes with “hinge”) isn’t often heard in the United States except in the mouths of Anglophiles.

  • They come from two Old English words: “whine” from hwinan (to make a whizzing or humming sound, like an arrow in flight), and “whinge” from hwinsian (to make a sound like a dog whimpering). We probably get “whinny,” or horse talk, from the same root.

  • Both words are very old; “whine” dates from 1275 and “whinge” from 1150. Originally, “whine” referred merely to the sound. But “whinge” implied a wailing or crying: the sound was one of distress. Eventually, to “whine” also came to mean complain or express discontent.

  • Though Americans use only one word, “whine,” the British use both: “whining” covers a variety of meanings, including sounds made by people, animals, or inanimate objects, and “whingeing” (also spelled “whinging”) is more specifically for peevish or fretful complaining. The British sometimes use the terms together for emphasis: “Stop your whingeing and whining!”

According to the Grammarist, the term "whinge" entered in the US during the 1980s but it never really became popular:

  • To whinge is to complain, especially in a fretful and persistent way. The word is roughly synonymous with whine, grouse, and gripe, and it often connotes annoyance with the complaining person or a sense that the complaining is unreasonable.

  • The word is almost nonexistent in American and Canadian English. While we find hundreds of instances of whinge used in U.K., Irish, and Australian news publications over the last few months, North American publications contain only a few scattered examples. Meanwhile, our American spell check catches whinge, our American dictionaries list it as British, and an unscientific poll we conducted suggests that some Americans have no knowledge of the word.

  • Whinge is old. The OED lists examples from as far back as 1150. Whing was the preferred spelling from around the 17th century until only recently, and whinge now prevails by a large margin. According to an Ngram graphing the use of both spellings, this started around 1980.

  • In either form, the word was rare until the last few decades. It has grown more common since the 1980s and in this century is almost faddish. As Americans, we can’t explain the word’s sudden popularity, so we welcome any comments from readers outside North America.

  • to form present participles from verbs ending in –ge, we usually drop the e and add –ing. Whingeing is one of the few exceptions, though it’s not always spelled this way; in news publications that publish online, whinging appears about a third as often as whingeing.

Usage examples:

  • Croxteth Labour councillor Peter Mitchell says that, rather than whinge about cuts, the community, with the council, is simply making them work. [Independent]

  • Needless to say the battle between these two foes plays out against the backdrop of a seething, whinging populace. [Sydney Morning Herald]

  • [A]n injustice was done but no amount of crying or whingeing or appeals will change the outcome. [Irish Times]

  • A young thief who whinged that he could not go to prison because he is a ‘fussy eater’ today had his sentence slashed by appeal judges. [Daily Mail]

  • Attempting (unsuccessfully, for the British hate a whinger, and a Royal whinger even more) to garner sympathy, the Prince portrayed his father as a bully. [Daily Beast]

The etymology of both term comes from the Old English hwinsian, to whine (of dogs).

Whine etymology:

  • Old English hwinan "to whiz or whistle through the air" (only of arrows), also hwinsian "to whine" (of dogs), ultimately of imitative origin (cf. Old Norse hvina "to whiz," German wiehern "to neigh"). Meaning "to complain in a feeble way" is first recorded 1520s.

Whinge etymology:

  • "to complain peevishly," British, informal or dialectal, ultimately from the northern form of Old English hwinsian, from Proto-Germanic *khwinisojan (cf. Old High German winison, German winseln), from root of Old English hwinan "to whine" (see whine (v.)
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