Grinch/Grincheur



Have you heard of the Grinch, pictured on the left?  He's a character from the pen of Dr. Seuss, an American author with a wonderful way with words.  Note the alliteration in the last sentence?  Dr. Seuss' work has many such examples of this wordplay, along with rhythm and rhyme.  The Grinch first appears in his 1957 story How the Grinch Stole Christmas, recently turned into a film with Jim Carrey in 2000.  The Grinch, whose heart is "two sizes too small" tries to spoil Christmas for the residents of Whoville by stealing their presents, food, decorations and trees.  But the people still find a way to celebrate on Christmas morning.

I've always wondered where Dr. Seuss (pictured right) came up with the name of his miserly and mean-spirited character, and now I may have the answer.  A grincheur is French slang for a young thief and a grinche is a thief, according to the Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant published in 1890.  So perhaps Dr. Seuss saw this word and was inspired to use this as the name of what is probably his most famous character.

Sources:
Barrere, Albert (2010) Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant, 1890, Kessinger Publishing.
Delahunty, Andrew (2005) The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions, 2nd ed, Oxford University Press.
Images:
Theodor Seuss Geisel (1957) [online] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ted_Geisel_NYWTS_2_crop.jpg  (Accessed 4th June 2011).


Juliana