Words derived from Sp. quejar(se)
Sp. quejoso/a and its various synonyms
In addition to the nouns we just saw that were derived from
the verb quejar(se), there are also some adjectives derived from this
verb. The main one today is perhaps quejoso/a, which means ‘complaining,
whiny, etc.’, as in No tiene por qué estar quejoso ‘He has nothing
to complain about’ (AEIV). This adjective is not very common, however, at least
in many dialects, and a more common synonymous sentence to the one just given would
be No tiene de qué quejarse. Note that English also does not typically
use adjectives to describe persons who complain, other than some disparaging
ones, such as whiny, an adjective derived from the patrimonial verb to
whine, one of whose senses is ‘to complain or protest in a childish fashion’
(AHD).
As usual, Spanish adjectives can typically be used as nouns
and the adjective quejoso/a can also be used as a noun, at least in some
dialects, with the meaning ‘complainer, person who complains’, as in de
acuerdo a los quejosos ‘according to the people who complained’ (Oxford
Spanish-English Dictionary = OSD). The term is not a positive or neutral one,
but rather a negative and disparaging one. One dictionary mentions other
English nouns that can translate the noun quejoso/a: fusspot, fussbudget,
moper, grouch, curmudgeon, cry-baby, whiner,
grouser, and griper (GU). Still, the noun is not very common, at
least in perhaps most dialects.
There are various synonyms of the adjective quejoso/a,
used mostly in colloquial Spanish. One of them is quejica, an invariant adjective
meaning ‘whining, whiny’ or as ‘complaining, grumpy, querulous’ (AEIV), as in Juan
es muy quejica ‘Juan is always complaining’. This adjective can also be
used as noun and then it can translate as ‘moaner, grouse’ (AEIV), as in Juan
es un quejica ‘Juan is a moper’. The word quejica is obviously
derived from the stem quej‑ and an ending ‑ica, whose source is
not clear. It is found only in a handful of colloquial words and its meaning is
pejorative and derogatory. The most common such words are the following, all of
them seem to be primarily nouns, though they can also be used as adjectives: llorica
‘noun crybaby, moaner; adj. whining’, from llorar ‘to
cry’; cobardica ‘noun wuss, wimp; adj. wussy’, from cobarde
‘coward’; roñica ‘adj. stingy, miserly; noun scrooge,
miser’, from the invariant roña ‘adj. stingy’ (the noun roña
means primarily ‘rust’); acusica ‘noun tattletale, telltale’ (= chivato/a,
soplón/a), from acusar ‘to accuse’; and abusica ‘noun
bully’, from abusar ‘to abuse’ (this last one is not found in any of the
major Spanish dictionaries).
The other synonyms of the adjectives quejoso/a and quejica,
which seem to be used in different dialects of Spanish to different extents,
are the following: quejicoso/a, quejilloso/a, quejumbroso/a,
and quejón(a).
Starting with quejicoso/a, María Moliner’s dictionary
defines it simply as ‘quejica’ (MM). The Academies’ dictionary does give a definition,
though, namely ‘that complains too much and mostly without cause’ (DLE).[1]
Obviously, the adjective is derived from the adjective quejica by means
of the adjectival suffix ‑os‑o/a (quejic‑os‑o/a).
As for the adjective quejilloso/a, the DLE tells us
that it means ‘that complains too much’ (DLE). It would seem to be derived from
the diminutive quejilla ‘small complaint’ of queja. María Moliner
defines it in terms of another synonym: ‘quejón’ (see below).
The adjective quejumbroso/a is also not very common,
and it is derived from an even less common verb, namely quejumbrar that
the DLE defines as ‘to complain frequency and with little reason’ (DLE).[2]
This verb seems to have been derived from the even less common noun quejumbre,
derived from the noun queja by means of the suffix ‑umbre that we
saw in the previous section, which is used to indicate quality or collectivity.
The last colloquial synonym of the adjective quejica,
used in some dialects of Spanish, is quejón(a), formed with the augmentative
suffix ‑ón(a) (quej-ón-a). Curiously, however, none of the major
Spanish dictionaries has an entry for this adjective. Only María Moliner
mentions it as an alternative to quejica, along with the other
adjectives that were just mentioned, but even this dictionary does not give quejón
its own entry.
Old Spanish also had the adjective quexado/a ‘angry,
irritated, unhappy’, but that adjective is now obsolete, and no Spanish
dictionary even mentions it. The DLE does have an entry for quejada, but
we are told that this is an obsolete version of the noun quijada ‘jaw
(bone’ (DLE: ‘the mandible of a vertebrate’), an unrelated word derived from
Vulgar Latin capsĕum, derived from Lat. capsa ‘box’ (the source
of Sp. caja ‘box’). Let us not forget, however, that as we mentioned
earlier, the great etymologist Yakov Malkiel argued that the verb quejar
was derived from this very word.
As we have seen, all the Spanish nouns used to refer to
someone who complains are derived from adjectives and they are all disparaging
terms to refer to individuals who complain too much and for little or no reason.
Interestingly, no noun related or unrelated to the verb quejarse gives
us a neutral term, even one that is equivalent to the English legal term (noun
and adjective) complainant that as a noun means ‘a party that makes a
complaint or files a formal charge, as in a court of law; a plaintiff’ (AHD).
This legal term translates into Spanish as demandante, querellante,
or reclamante. Note that English borrowed and adapted the noun complainant
from French complaignant, a present participle that was also used as a
noun, derived from the verb complaindre. This French verb, through its
regular stem complaign‑ (cf. present complaigne) is the source of
the English verb complain, borrowed in the 14th century. The original
meaning of the English loan was ‘to bewail, lament, deplore’ (OED), a meaning
that is now obsolete. The French verb is a reflex of Late Latin complangĕre
‘to bewail’, which was formed by adding the intensive prefix com‑ added
to the Latin verb plangĕre ‘to lament, bewail’, originally ‘to strike,
beat, beat the breast or head in sign of grief’ (OED). Curiously, Spanish did
have a patrimonial cognate of this verb, namely complañir ‘to cry or to
pity’, a verb that is now obsolete, but which is still found in major
dictionaries such as the Academies’ or María Moliner’s. Not yet obsolete,
though rare, is the related verb plañir that descends from Lat. plangĕre,
which still has the same meaning that its Latin ancestor had. Slightly more
common is the derived noun plañidera ‘hired woman mourner’ (MM: ‘a woman
who was paid to attend and cry at burials’, equivalent to endechera, guayadero,
and llorona).
[1] The original says: ‘quejicoso,
sa adj. Que se queja demasiado, y la mayoría de las veces sin causa’
(DLE).
[2] The original says: ‘intr. Quejarse con frecuencia y con poco motivo’ (DLE).
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