grotch

Coined by American journalist Dean Grennell.

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹɑːt͡ʃ/
• enPR: gräch^[1]
• Rhymes: -ɒtʃ

grotch (third-person singular simple present grotches, present participle grotching, simple past and past participle grotched)

1. (dated, fandom slang) To annoy; to irritate.
   • 1959, Richard "Dick" Harris Eney, Fancyclopedia II‎^[2], Grotch:

     GROTCH (Grennell) Acutely irritate. Usually passive. Speer suggests that this useful word is a transitive form of grouch.

2. (dated, fandom slang) To complain.
   • 1959, Richard "Dick" Harris Eney, Fancyclopedia II‎^[3], RICHARD S(harpe) SHAVER:

     This might have been an amusing and ingenious piece of fantasy, but Palmer published it, and demanded that it be accepted, as fact. Fans, as might be expected, grotched most acutely at such a claim, seeing in it the revolting nadir of Palmerism; the completion of his shift from fictionalized science to profitable superstition in the name of commercial appeal to the boob element.

   • 1962 June, Edmund R. Meskys, “Cry of the Readers”, in Cry of the Nameless‎^[4], number 161, archived from the original on 6 March 2016, pages (19–36):

     Oh yeah, Buz, so you were just a wee bit off on your Hugo nomination predictions last time around. I see where SFTimes did not make it and Cry did. Well, sorry to disappoint you, but if anyone gets my vote at all, it will be Warhoon. (I'm a bit grotched about their policy of your having to use the official ballot. I'm a completist fanatic second only to Walter A. Coslet, and I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll part with my copy of the ballot in order to vote.)

   • 1989 October 6, Alex Pournelle, “Re^2: Is an(y) Apple Hard Disk better than any others?”, in comp.sys.mac‎^[5] (Usenet), message-ID <1989Oct6.080327.16026@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us>:

     The Seagates are,despite my constant grotching about commodity drives, not bad.

   • 2000 August 8, Mike Weber, “Re: Being nice to outsiders”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom‎^[6] (Usenet), message-ID <398fcef2.6598134@news.mindspring.com>:

     The problem is that, much as we may sympathise with those coming in and expecting different rules of discourse than obtain here, we are not obligated to change *our* ways to suit *them*, and people who don't perceive that fact fairly quickly (or fail to "get" it after the first time it's pointed out) and continue to grotch about how "You kids are playing wrong -- play right!" are Fair Game for sardonic replies.

• (annoy): see Thesaurus:annoy
• (complain): see Thesaurus:complain

• grotchy