engross

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English engrossen, also ingrossen,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman engrosser and medieval Latin ingrossō,^[4][5][6] with its senses formed along separate lines from elements that the OED calls ultimately identical,^[7] all from Late Latin grossus (“thick, large”), the source of gross.^[7][8][9] The sense "to buy up wholesale" rests on Old French en gros (“in bulk, at wholesale”),^{[10][11][3][8]} from en (“in”) and gros (“whole quantity; thick”),^[11][3] with medieval Latin in grossō beside it,^[4][5][12] and the OED finds the Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Latin verbs in the Statutes.^[7] The sense "to write in large letters" is from the Anglo-Norman verb in its own sense,^{[10][7][3][13]} based on Old French grosse (“large writing”) and medieval Latin grossa (“a transcript in large letters”), the feminine of the Latin adjective.^[7][4][3][8] The obsolete sense "to thicken" is from French engrosser (“to make big, thick”),^[7][5] Barnhart's Middle French engrossier (“to enlarge”),^[11] the counterpart of Old Occitan engrossar, Spanish engrosar and Italian ingrossare.^[7] The Middle English Dictionary lists Old French engrossier, engroissier and engrossir together with the medieval Latin verb.^[2] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the second quarter of the 12th century,^[14] and Etymonline finds the wholesale sense in Anglo-French from about 1300.^[10] Cresswell links the word to grocer, originally someone who sold things in the gross.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To buy up goods wholesale, especially the whole stock of a commodity, in order to retail it at a monopoly price: before 1400, in English Gilds^[7] and in the usages of Winchester, which forbid a regrater to go out of town for to engrosy þe chaffare.^[2] Barnhart also says before 1400,^[11] and Etymonline about 1400.^[10] Dictionary.com's 1275–1325 is earlier.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The commercial sense was extended to collecting things from all quarters, from 1598 to 1616, in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1,^[7] and to gaining exclusive possession of property, trade or privileges, from 1601, in B. Jonson.^[7] Barnhart dates this transferred use to 1598, citing The Merry Wives of Windsor.^[11] Of things, "to take up the entire use of" is recorded from 1596,^[7] and the Shorter Oxford dates "to fully occupy the mind or time" to the mid-17th century.^[5] The modern sense, absorbing a person's whole attention, followed in 1709, in Steele's writing in The Tatler.^[11][10] Separately, clerks used the verb for writing documents out in large, clear script,^[12] from about 1418 in Barnhart and about 1430 in the OED;^[11][7] the sense then narrowed to producing a legal document in its final form.^[5][7] Johnson (1755) still put "to thicken", "to increase in bulk" and "to fatten" first, before seizing the whole of a thing, buying up a commodity and copying in a large hand.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1400 – to buy up wholesale, especially to corner a commodity.^[7][2][11]
• c. 1418 – to draft a legal document.^[11] The OED's first quotation for writing in large letters is from Lydgate, about 1430.^[7]
• before 1425 – to increase or thicken, probably from this date.^[11]
• 1596 – of things, to require the entire use of.^[7]
• 1598 – to collect from all quarters (obsolete after 1616).^[7]
• 1601 – to gain or keep exclusive possession of.^[7]
• mid-17th century – of an object of thought, to occupy the mind or time fully.^[5]
• 1709 – to absorb a person's whole attention.^[11][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To occupy someone's attention completely; to absorb: The chess match engrossed the whole room.^[16][17][5]
2. To write or copy in a large, clear hand.^{[16][17][3][7]}
3. (law) To write or print out a deed, bill or other official document in its final form.^{[16][17][3][5]}
4. To buy up all or most of a commodity in order to control its price; to corner or monopolize a market.^[16][17][5]
5. To gain or keep exclusive possession of property, privileges or functions.^[7][5]
6. (obsolete) To make thick or fat; to increase in bulk.^[15][11]

Word family

• engrosser
• engrossment
• engrossing

Related words

• gross
• grocer

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
15. ^ 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.
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt