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gras

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Etymology and origin of the Catalan word gras

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Llull More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin grassus
Ultimate origin
Latin crassus

Pronunciation

  • Balearic, Central, Northern, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈɡɾas][1]

Forms

gras (feminine grassa, masculine plural grassos, feminine plural grasses)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin grassus (“fat”), the Vulgar Latin form of classical crassus (“thick, fat”).[2][3][4][5][1] DECat, Bruguera and the GDLC explain the voiced initial by the influence of the near-synonym grossus (“thick”); the DCVB notes that the form with ⟨g⟩ appears in Latin inscriptions.[2][4][5][3] García de Diego considers the change of /kr/ to /gr/ regular and needs no influence of the other word.[6]

The same word is French gras, Italian grasso, Spanish graso and Portuguese graxo.[6][1] The Spanish word is rare and unpopular in the old language.[7]

The origin of the Latin adjective is unknown: de Vaan rejects the old derivation from a root meaning “to wind” and the comparison with crātis (“wickerwork”), and notes that it belongs to a group of adjectives for human body shapes.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is in Llull: in the Llibre de contemplació rich men enjoy fat, savoury foods (viandes grasses e saboroses) more than the poor enjoy their lean ones, and in Blanquerna the shepherd must watch fat sheep with more care than lean ones.[9][2] The CICA corpus first records it in the second half of the 13th century.[10]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, of food containing fat, soon extended to people and animals with much flesh: Bernat Metge (1381) and a horse manual of 1424, which says that a young horse should be stout but not fat.[11][9] The figurative senses are medieval too: Muntaner (1325) calls a country rich in resources grassa, Eiximenis (1381) the fertile clay land of Valencia, Turmeda (1398) the easy life of the townsmen, and the mint documents of Valencia a coin above its legal fineness.[11]

The derivatives grassament, grassesa, grasset and grassor are formed on the adjective;[4] greix (1314) goes back to a Latin derivative of crassus.[4] Labèrnia (1839) adds the phrase gras com un porc and the figurative estar massa gras, to be too rich.[12] The DCVB also records a sense of excessively coarse talk.[3]

Timeline

  • 13th century – Llull uses the word of fat foods and fat sheep.[9][2]
  • 1325 – Muntaner speaks of a land grassa, rich in resources.[11]
  • 1381 – Eiximenis describes the fertile terra grassa of Valencia.[11]
  • 1424 – Manuel Dieç's horse manual distinguishes gras “fat” from gros “big, stout”.[11]
  • 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary, with gras com un porc.[12]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Containing fat, fatty: La carn grassa no li agrada gaire.[5][3][1]
  2. Of a person or animal, fat, plump, with much flesh.[5][3][13]
  3. Like fat in look or feel, greasy;[5] (mineralogy) of a mineral, with a greasy lustre; of coal, rich in volatile matter.[5]
  4. Abundant, rich, larger than usual: una paga grassa, uns beneficis grassos.[5][3]
  5. Excessively coarse.[3]

Noun

  1. The fat part of meat: Separa el gras del magre.[5][13]

Word family

  • grassament
  • grassesa
  • grasset
  • grassor

Usage notes

Dijous gras, the Thursday before Lent, is also called dijous llarder.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 620
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. gras
  4. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 468
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. gras
  6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. crassus
  7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 200
  8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. gras
  10. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. gras
  11. ^ a b c d e Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. gras
  12. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. gras
  13. ^ a b Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. gras
  14. ^ Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. gras

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Gras.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ca/gras. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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