Oh, Quit Whinging

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 83218

Grannybat:
> 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.
> 

Geoff:
I think that the writer may have been working from memory and just 
got the name of the village or town wrong. I think that in the films, 
the name only appears on the letters to Harry and isn't mentioned 
elsewhere. There is a real village called Great Snoring and this may 
have influenced the mistake.

Whinging (or whingeing as some dictionaries have it) is indeed 
complaining.My dictionary defines it as "complaining persistently and 
peevishly." 

I would use it in a slightly different context to whining; it's more 
a persistent going on ad nauseam about something which has or has not 
happened rather than 'demanding' something which a fractious or 
obnoxious child might; I hope that makes some sort of sense. I have a 
feeling that it may be Australian in origin.

I think JKR's Little Whinging is in outer suburban Surrey - in what 
we call the "stockbroker belt". I taught for many years in the inner 
suburbs of Surrey and it was not as leafy or pleasant as Privet Drive 
(residents of no.4 notwithstanding). Little Whinging does indeed 
reflect the attitude of many suburban citizens in the UK to whom a 
change in the day of the dustbin collection can be a disaster!