Is this phrase American or Australian? Never heard anyone say it before...

[edam]

Someone at work used the phrase 'snotty little whiner'. Not something I've come across before and am intrigued to know where it came from - possibly overseas as this person has travelled quite widely?

I could imagine it being Australian - but also in some parts of UK. Probably less so in America. Not very complimentary anyway.

No, doesn't sound terribly flattering!

Aussies tend to use 'whinger'. Think it may be British though not very nice.

"whiner" is more American, whereas I would have thought "whinger" was British.

Yet "snotty" in this context sounds a bit wrong for US English, as the sense of "brat" would probably be expressed by an American as "snot-nosed". "Snotty" in the US (at least the parts I'm familiar with) is a bit closer in meaning to "snooty".

So we're looking for a mid-Atlantic (mid-Pacific) culturally confused individual!

Can hear it with and Australian accent. Whiney little snot, on the other hand, sounds American

thanks - the person who used it lived in different countries as a child but has spent a lot of time in Australia and then here.