grinch

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The Word of the Day for December 25 is:=20

grinch   \GRINCH\   noun
          : killjoy, spoilsport=20

Example sentence:
          Our team had improved significantly over the past week, but th=
e grinches were still pointing out that we were more than ten games out =
of first place.

Did you know?
          When Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote the chil=
dren's book _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_ in 1957, he probably had no=
 idea that in 20 years "grinch" would enter the general lexicon of Engli=
sh. Like Charles Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge (whose name has become synony=
mous with "miser"), the Grinch changes his ways by the story's end, but =
it's the unreformed character who "hated Christmas! The whole Christmas =
season!" who sticks in our minds. The ill-natured Grinch, with his heart=
 "two sizes too small," provides us with a lively symbol of someone we l=
ove to hate, and his name has thus come to refer to any disgruntled grum=
p who ruins the pleasure of others.





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