Oh, Quit Whinging

[grannybat84112]

No: HPFGUIDX 83204

Hmmm. I've a bit of confusion here.

>From my exposure to the HP universe and various British mysteries and 
comedies that air on my local PBS station, I was under the impression 
that the word "whinging" was equivalent to the American "whining" -- 
that high-pitched, irritating form of pleading employed by tired 
toddlers and manipulative grownups to wear down adult resistance. 
(Why, hello, Mr. Pettigrew.) But I've just read a page from the PoA 
movie article featured in Xpose Magazine that refers to the Dursley's 
suburb as Little Snoring. 

Snoring?

Well, I suppose it's possible. Certainly when Harry wasn't defending 
himself from assault by Dudley, or coping with wizardly problems, he 
was nearly bored to a stupor at Number Four. Still, I always took the 
name Little Whinging to be JKR's swipe at the way the citizens of 
Surrey react whenever magic or mere scruffiness intereferes with the 
way they think their perfectly normal lives SHOULD be.

I tried looking up Whinging on the Britspeak section of the HP 
Lexicon, but it's not listed. Is this just a matter of the print 
media once again not getting their facts straight, or am I missing 
one of the subtle nuances of British language?

The offending article can be found here:
http://www.visimag.com/xpose/x80_feat01.htm

Grannybat