Disgruntled and fabulous: origins

Factual Questions
1

I’ve heard of “disgruntled” people, but never of “gruntled” people. Are there or have there been people in a state of gruntlement, and if so, what does it feel like to be gruntled?

Please, no lewdness, unless it’s absolutely necessary to the explanation, in which case, be explicit.

Also, the use of the term “fabulous” in a trilled manner by some gender-challenged individuals – where did that originate? It sounds like something that might have come from a specific play, movie or TV program of some sort.

enquiring minds and all …

2

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_264a.html

3

From the OED:

As for the obvious question – why “disgruntled”? – the OED gives this clue:

Thus, “dis-” is meant as an intensifier; i.e., disgruntled originally meant “grumbling twice as much as anyone else.”

4

I don’t know for sure, but I think that fabulous comes from fabular, and then later fabel.

this is what I found:

fabula, fabulae, f. - story

confabulate - to talk together informally; chat: Friends are comfortable with each other, whether they are confabulating or saying nothing at all. Also: confabulation, confabulator, confabulatory. [fabulor, fabulari, fabulatus - to converse, chatter]

fable - a story, frequently involving animals, whose purpose is to impart a moral lesson: The most famous fables are those of Aesop, but many other authors have written fables, too, including LaFontaine, Lessing, and George Orwell. Also: fabular (of or pertaining to a fable), fabulist (one who writes or tells fables; a liar), fabled (legendary), fabulous, fabulousness.

5

For that matter, what’s it like to feels reckful or feckful or gormful? Or ept, or ert, or fernal? Can one’s hair be kempt and one’s children ruly? :slight_smile:

6

I could be totally wrong, but I think he/she is asking how faaaaabulous came to be associated as a “gay” word. A few weeks ago, one guy I know said fabulous several times in the space of several minutes, then said, “I know I’ve said ‘fabulous’ several times, but I’m not gay.”

7

Thank you all for the origins of disgruntled. I am feeling less gruntled now.

As for fabulous, Earl Snake Hips has got it – I am looking for its origin as a gay catchphrase. Sounds like something that may have occurred in some specific place and time and associated with some specific character or person.