groß

Forms

groß (strong nominative masculine singular großer, comparative größer, superlative am größten or am größesten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German grōz, inherited from Old High German grōz, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *grauta-, an adjective found only in West Germanic.^[2][3] The same word is Old Saxon grōt, Old English grēat and Old Frisian grāt; Dutch groot and English great continue it.^[2][4]

Its original meaning was “coarse, coarsely ground”: beside it stands Old Norse grautr (“groats”), and it is an adjective with o-grade from the strong verb Proto-Germanic *greutaną (“to grind”), which survives in Old High German only in the participle firgrozzen.^[2][4][1] Formally it matches Lithuanian graudùs (“brittle, crumbly”).^[2][3] Pfeifer, Köbler and Wiktionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd- (“to rub, grind”), an extension of Proto-Indo-European *gʰer-.^[3][5][1] It is thus closely related to Grieß, Grütze and Grus.^[6][2]

In continental West Germanic the word replaced the common Germanic adjective for “big”, Old High German mihhil, Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌺𐌹𐌻𐍃 (mikils), Old English micel, which survives in English much and in place names such as Michelstadt and Mecklenburg.^[3][6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German grōz is recorded from the 9th century, in Otfrid (863–871), Notker and the glosses, meaning “big, strong, long, broad, thick”.^[2][5][7] The sense “coarse-grained” still lived on in Old English and occasionally in Early New High German.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From “coarse-grained” came “massive, thick”, the main sense in Middle High German, where “big” was still expressed by michel.^[3][8] The word was then extended to other dimensions (“long, wide”), to quantities (“numerous”) and to rank and value (“important, eminent, noble”).^[3] Its use as an intensifying adverb, common in older New High German, is now limited to negative phrases like nicht groß “not much”, while colloquial ganz groß “splendidly” is recent.^[3] With a measure, groß took the genitive until the 19th century (einer Elle groß, Luther) and the accusative from the end of the 18th (zwei Meter groß).^[3][8]

Many compounds are loan translations: Großmutter (around 1400) and Großvater follow French grand-mère and grand-père and replaced Ahne, and Großherzog (16th century) follows Italian gran duca.^[6][9] Großstadt is found in the 16th century and again in the early 19th;^[6][3] großartig (early 19th century) first stood for grandios.^[6][3]

Timeline

• 863–871 – Old High German grōz in Otfrid.^[5]
• c. 1400 – Großmutter, a loan translation of French grand-mère.^[6]
• 16th century – Großherzog, after Italian gran duca.^[6]
• End of the 18th century – Measures are given in the accusative (zwei Meter groß).^[3]
• Early 19th century – großartig “magnificent”.^[3]
• 19th century – Größenwahn “megalomania”.^[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. big, large: exceeding the average in size or extent: eine große Stadt “a big city”.^[10][1]
2. Of a given size: der Mann ist zwei Meter groß “the man is two metres tall”.^[10]
3. tall (of a person).^[10][1]
4. Older; grown-up: sein großer Bruder “his big brother”.^[10]
5. Considerable in number, amount or degree: große Freude “great joy”.^[8][3]
6. great, important, eminent.^[1][3]
7. (childish) In groß machen: to defecate.^[10][1]

Word family

• Größe
• vergrößern
• großartig
• Großbürger
• Größenwahn
• größenwahnsinnig
• großkotzig
• Großmut
• großmütig
• Großmutter
• großsprecherisch
• großspurig
• Großstadt
• Großstädter
• großstädtisch
• Großvater
• Großherzog

Related words

• Gernegroß
• Grieß
• Grütze
• Grus
• grob
• English great

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 376
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 133
8. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
10. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag