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gram

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Pronunciation

gram1 unit of mass

Etymology

It is borrowed from French gramme,[2][3][4][5][6] from Late Latin gramma (“a small weight”),[2][3][7] from Ancient Greek γράμμα (grámma, “something written, a letter; a small weight”),[2][3][8][9] from the stem of γράφω (gráphō, “to draw, write”).[3][7][10] The Greek noun is also the source of grammar and of the suffix -gram.[9][8] The French word was adopted for the basic unit of weight in the metric system in 1799;[9][2] Etymonline notes that English took it up about two years before the unit was fixed by French law.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The metric unit of weight: 1797, spelled gramme,[3][2][11] in the late 18th century in the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English.[12][6] Merriam-Webster's first known use is 1810.[7]

Semantic evolution

It was first defined as the weight of a cubic centimetre of distilled water at its greatest density, and is now defined as a thousandth of a kilogram.[12][7] The French spelling gramme is still used in British English beside gram,[12][13] which is the usual form in American English.[13] Compounds such as gram atom and gram calorie were formed in chemistry and physics.[10][12]

Timeline

  • 1797 – gramme, the metric unit of weight.[3][2]
  • 1810 – Merriam-Webster's first known use.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A metric unit of mass equal to one thousandth of a kilogram: Add 200 grams of flour.
  2. The weight of such a mass under standard gravity.

Word family

  • kilogram
  • milligram
  • microgram
  • centigram

gram2 chickpea

Etymology

It is borrowed from Portuguese grão (“grain, seed, chickpea”), formerly sometimes written gram,[4][7][12][14] inherited from Latin grānum (“grain, seed”),[4][7][8] the source of grain.[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The chickpea, also called Bengal gram: 1702, in a record from Madras,[4][11][7] the early 18th century in the Shorter Oxford.[12]

Semantic evolution

The name was extended to other kinds of pulse grown in the Indian subcontinent and used as food for horses and people,[4][12] such as black gram, green gram (the mung bean) and horse gram.[12][7] Attributive uses such as gram-fed and gram field are recorded from 1799, in the Duke of Wellington's dispatches from India.[4]

Timeline

  • 1702 – the chickpea.[4][7]
  • 1799 – attributive uses such as gram-fed.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The chickpea, or any of several other leguminous plants grown, especially in South Asia, for their seeds; the seeds themselves.

Word family

  • Bengal gram
  • black gram
  • green gram
  • horse gram

gram3 grandmother

Etymology

It is a shortening of gramma, a variant of grandma.[4][7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

One's grandmother, usually as a form of address or a title before a name: 1923, in the Washington Post;[4][11] Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1934.[7]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the familiar, affectionate use of grandma, and is used chiefly in speech and family writing.[4][7]

Timeline

  • 1923 – grandmother.[4]
  • c1934 – Merriam-Webster's first known use.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (informal) A grandmother: We spent the summer at Gram's farm.

Usage notes

Two further clippings are spelled the same: gram for telegram or cablegram, recorded from 1891, and gram for gramophone, from 1959.[4][12] The Gram stain and the adjectives Gram-positive and Gram-negative come instead from the name of the Danish bacteriologist Hans Christian Gram, who developed the staining method in 1884.[4][12] In Scottish and Northumbrian dialect gram or grame meant anger or passion, a word the English Dialect Dictionary derives from Old Norse.[15]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ 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)