gritch

/grich/ [MIT] 1. n. A complaint (often caused by a glitch ). 2. vi. To
complain. Often verb-doubled: Gritch gritch. 3. A synonym for glitch (as
verb or noun). Interestingly, this word seems to have a separate history
from glitch , with which it is often confused. Back in the early 1960s, when
glitch was strictly a hardware-tech's term of art, the Burton House dorm at
M.I.T. maintained a Gritch Book , a blank volume, into which the residents
hand-wrote complaints, suggestions, and witticisms. Previous years' volumes
of this tradition were maintained, dating back to antiquity. The word gritch
was described as a portmanteau of gripe and bitch. Thus, sense 3 above is at
least historically incorrect.

