Meaning

noun a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas

originNumerous folk etymologies exist for this word. An alternative spelling attested in 1600 is cornmudgin, in Holland's translation of Livy, rendering Latin frūmentārius (“corn-merchant”). This has been suggested as the original form of the word, but OED notes that curmudgeon is attested some years before this, concluding that cornmudgin was merely a nonce-word by Holland. The word is attested from…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0