gruntled

English

WOTD – 5 July 2012, 5 July 2013, 5 July 2014, 5 July 2015

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹʌntl̩d/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹʌnt(ə)ld/
• Rhymes: -ʌntəld
• Hyphenation: gruntl‧ed

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

English gruntle

Old English -ed

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos

Proto-Germanic *-ōdaz

Old English -od

Middle English -ed

English -ed

English gruntled

From gruntle + -ed.

Adjective

gruntled (comparative more gruntled, superlative most gruntled)

1. (obsolete) Grunted.
   • 1909, Mary Austin, Lost Borders, page 172:

     Along about the time Orion's sword sloped down the west, Chabot heard their gruntled noises and the scurry of the flock.

Etymology 2

Back-formation from disgruntled.

Adjective

gruntled (comparative more gruntled, superlative most gruntled)

1. (chiefly humorous) Contented, pleased, satisfied. [from 1930s]

   Antonym: disgruntled

   • 1938 July 16 – September 3, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “(please specify the page)”, in The Code of the Woosters, London: Herbert Jenkins, published 7 October 1938, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1994 July 25, Jack Winter, “How I Met My Wife”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate.

   • 1996 March 13, Ira Berkow, “Sports of The Times: A case for fill-in coaches”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     After all, a number of players were disgruntled, and a few more were gruntled.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

   • 2009 March 18, Ian O'Doherty, “Tyra—the cause of all evil”, in Irish Independent, retrieved 15 December 2023:

     [S]he was rumoured to be rather less than gruntled when The Soup’s Joel McHale said: "Here's Ryan Seacrest and Tyra Banks playing Lady and the Tramp ... You figure out which is which."

   • 2011, Jay Shepherd, “Gruntled Employees”, in Firing at Will: A Manager’s Guide, Apress, →ISBN, page 228:

     Gruntled employees are happy employees. Gruntled employees like their coworkers. […] gruntled employees like their employers. … So how do you keep your employees gruntled?

Further reading

• “gruntled”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Michael Quinion (1996–2026), “Disgruntled and gruntled”, in World Wide Words.