Thing Not To Be Today: mardy.

Mardy probably still counts as a dialect word, but it's increasing its range and I expect most English people now recognise it, and probably understand it. 

This may be down to the lift it's got from the Arctic Monkeys' song Mardy Bum.

My dictionary says that the word mardy refers to a child, but, hey, either the dictionary is wrong, the usage has changed - or perhaps it's just that there's a lot of childish behaviour about.

The dictionary definition of mardy is spoilt and irritable, and that's pretty close if yours is a Yorkshire type of mardy; but if it's an East Midlands' mardy then it'll probably mean awkward, bad-tempered or terse.

Mardy may be combined with a less-than-complimentary noun such as cow, or, as in the Arctic Monkeys' song, bum. 

Sometimes mardy will be shortened to mard, especially in the powerful phrase he's got a mard on (in a bad mood).

Anyway, being sulky or whiny or mardy is not for us. 

Though pointing it out in others is pretty-much irresistible.

Thing Not To Be Today: mardy. This word comes from mar, from the Old English merran.