coarse

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cors, also course,^[2][3][4] probably an adjectival use of the noun from Middle English cours (“course; ordinary run of things”), the source of course,^[5][3][6][7] perhaps in the phrase of course, "of the ordinary run or sort".^{[2][8][9][10]} The noun comes from Old French cors (“course, run”), from Latin cursus (“a running”), from currō (“to run”).^[5] The OED notes that no corresponding adjective is found elsewhere (in Germanic, Romance or Celtic), and that the word was spelled like course until the 18th century and is still pronounced like it; the derivation from course "ordinary" was suggested by Wedgwood.^[11] The MED also compares Medieval Latin cursōrius (“current, ordinary”).^[2][3] The OED, the Shorter Oxford, Collins and Hoad call the origin uncertain or unknown,^{[11][12][13][4]} and Ayto notes that not all etymologists accept the derivation from course.^[14] Weekley took it instead as a metathesis of Anglo-Norman cros, as in crospais for grampus, that is French gros,^[15] and Etymonline allows that gros may have influenced it, since it had a similar sense development.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ordinary, common, of inferior quality, at first of cloth: Barnhart dates cours to 1398,^[3] and the MED's first quotation, from the Colchester Oath Book (before 1399), lists cours madyr among goods.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from a will of 1424, with too cors bordcloþes, two coarse tablecloths.^[11][2][3]

Semantic evolution

According to the OED, the word was first used of cloth, to distinguish what was made or worn in the ordinary course from fine cloth for special occasions or persons, so that "course cloth" was "cloth of (ordinary) course"; it compares the history of mean.^[11] Etymonline compares also ornery from ordinary.^[5] Since such cloth was rough, the sense "not fine in texture, made of large particles" became attached to the word, recorded from 1582 in Lyly.^[11][3] It was then used of food and fare (1607), of people, animals and land (before 1636), of perception and manners (1680, 1699),^[11] and of language that is gross, indecent or obscene (1711, Addison in the Spectator).^[11][3][5] Barnhart and Etymonline date the sense "rude, unpolished" to about 1500–1510, earlier than the OED's 1699.^[3][5] The old sense "ordinary, mean, of little account" lasted until 1695.^[11] Weekley noted that its literal and figurative senses run parallel to those of gross, French gros and German grob.^[15] Johnson (1755) gave "not refined; not separated from impurities" first, quoting Shakespeare's Henry VIII on "what coarse metal ye are molded".^[16] The spelling coarse is first found in 1653, became frequent after 1700, and was established in the 18th century,^[11][14] though Hoad finds cowarce already in the 16th century, and Etymonline and Barnhart date the modern spelling to the late 16th century.^[4][5][3] In dialect, coarse weather was rough or stormy weather in Cumberland and Yorkshire, and coarse bread was brown bread in Yorkshire;^[17][11] in American slang coarse banknotes were large ones (1896).^[18]

Timeline

• 1398 – cours, ordinary, inferior, of cloth.^[3][2]
• 1424 – ordinary, common, of inferior quality (obsolete by 1695).^[11]
• 1578 – to make coarse account of, to make little of (obsolete).^[11]
• 1582 – not fine in texture; made of large particles.^[11][3]
• 1607 – rough or plain, of food.^[11]
• 1653 – first record of the spelling coarse.^[11]
• 1680 – of people, lacking delicacy of perception.^[11]
• 1699 – of manners and language, unrefined, rude, vulgar.^[11]
• 1711 – indecent, obscene, in Addison's Spectator.^[11][3][5]
• 1774 – of weather, rough, stormy.^[11]
• 1805 – the verb coarsen.^[3]
• 1879 – of sound, rough and harsh.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of relatively large particles or parts; not fine: coarse gravel.^[13][7][11]
2. Rough or loose in texture: a coarse woollen blanket.^[13][7]
3. Lacking refinement or good taste; rude or vulgar: His coarse manners embarrassed his hosts.^[13][7][11]
4. Of language or jokes: indecent or obscene.^[11][13]
5. Of ordinary or inferior quality; common.^[13][7][11]
6. Of a metal: not refined.^[13][16]
7. Of a screw: having widely spaced threads.^[13]
8. Of sound: rough and harsh.^[11]
9. (chiefly dialect) Of the weather: rough and stormy.^[11][17]

Word family

• coarsely
• coarseness
• uncoarse
• coarsen
• coarse-grained
• coarse fish

Related words

• course
• gross

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists coarse together with course, curse and cuss as words that are easily confused.^[19] Coarse and course are pronounced alike in standard English and in the dialects.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House