Meaning: Someone described as querulous is constantly or habitually complaining. Querulous can also be used synonymously with fretful or whining when describing something, such as a person’s tone of voice.
The world is filled with all sorts of people. I sometimes wonder whether languages of the world have managed to capture even a part of the diverse group of people that currently walks the Earth. My guess would be a no. But I am open to debate on the subject. My arguments would be based on the size of the English dictionary. Why did I choose the English dictionary to base my argument? That would be an easy one to answer. The language that has picked up words around the world due to its colonial past would be the most appropriate starting point to explore the compilation of words on the types of people who inhabit this planet, not speaking of the people who have lived in the past and people who have yet to come into existence. According to Hindu philosophy, the people who lived in the past were reincarnated due to their karma. Then, the current word list describing human nature would make sense. On the other hand, if we consider the non-Hindu philosophy of no possibility of being reincarnated, we will have to question the limited list of words that describe human nature in the dictionary. We would be missing out on words that describe the nature of people across generations after generations.
If these descriptions are metaphorically extended to non-humans having their own nature and attributes but identified with their human counterparts, it is not fair. In any case, if that aspect of the non-human characteristics were explored, the English dictionary would be a humungous document encompassing the study of botany to incorporate the plant characteristics & zoology to incorporate the characteristics of the entire non-human animal kingdom. There is still much of the animal kingdom that remains undiscovered, both underwater and on land. Nature in its entirety is so vast that if all the words ever known in every language spoken were put together into one mammoth dictionary, even that would not reach the anticipated size of characterizing the non-human beings on this planet, even though we haven’t even started speaking about the other planets harbouring life waiting to be discovered. Hence, their attributes are beyond human understanding and not defined by any world dictionary.
Speaking of Earth-bound beings and metaphorically speaking of their nature and comparing them to human nature would be like this: if an insect with one tentacle hits out at another insect of its own species and immediately disengages, will it be considered as giving a high-five to each other? Or if they continue to engage, will they be considered querulous or quarrelsome, since insects emit a continuous buzzing sound akin to a human being’s sonorous annoying tones. But that would only be speculation until human civilization progresses enough to either provide new words to the nature of different species as they are discovered or understand the language spoken by other species. The human species does not have a single language spoken across the world. But we find many people’s querulous nature when faced with people who do not speak their language.
When it comes to language skills, is it possible that only homo-sapiens have mastered them? Other mammals may have more than one language spoken across their species, and humans have not yet progressed to understand the differences. On one hand, even with the human species, language is not a barrier to communication. Have you wondered how toddlers play with one another without having mastered language skills? Children older than toddlers can be a good case for understanding language requirements. Children understand one another perfectly and enjoy their time together without needing to speak the other’s language. But again, the argument put forward that complex situations require language to communicate. For example, politics, economics and all the complex subjects taught and studied at the University level would require language. But for all the studies, the world leaders still do not understand each other and are perpetually at war. Maybe the answer lies in sophisticated-querulous behaviour. If something of that kind exists, very well; if not, we invent it for the sake of our argument.
Humans are far from doing away with conflicts and making words as querulous irrelevant from the dictionary. These words were invented because human nature has such qualities. However, coming to an understanding with rationality and good common sense -that incidentally are some of the traits that have made man come out as the most successful species to survive on Earth, though Man’s survival has put planet Earth itself into an existential crisis.