grits

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English grutta (“bran, coarse meal”),^[2][3] inherited from Old English grytta (“coarse meal, groats”),^[2][3][4] the plural of a feminine noun found only in the plural, beside a neuter grytt recorded in the singular, chiefly in early glossaries.^[5][6] The American Heritage Dictionary calls the modern form an alteration of the Middle English one,^[2] and Etymonline treats it as the plural of grit in the sense "coarsely ground grain".^[4] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate takes it as perhaps partly from grit and partly from a dialect grit, coarse meal.^[7] The Old English word goes back to Proto-Germanic *grutja-,^[4][3] and Kroonen distinguishes a neuter collective *grutja(n)-, with the suffix of other cereal names such as *hwaitja- (“wheat”), from the feminine *grutjō- continued in Old English.^[8] It is cognate with Middle Dutch gorte (modern Dutch gort), Middle Low German grütte, Old High German gruzzi and Middle High German grütze (modern German Grütze).^[5][3][8] The OED explains it as a zero-grade ablaut variant of the same Germanic base, and relates it to groats, grout and Old Norse grautr (“porridge”).^[5] Etymonline and Barnhart note that grits and grit influenced each other in sound and meaning.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In early Old English glossaries the singular grytt apparently meant finely ground flour, glossing Latin pollis;^[5][9] the plural meant bran or coarse meal, as in Bald's Leechbook.^[5][6] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 700 and Middle English grutta to about 1150.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The OED finds the sense "finely ground flour" hard to explain, since it runs against the usual meaning of the word and its cognates, and suggests it arose in the glossary tradition.^[5] From about 1300 the plural meant oats husked but not ground, or only coarsely ground, and later any coarsely ground grain or pulse, especially maize in the United States.^[5] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate date the form grits itself to 1579.^[3][7] Etymonline notes that in colonial America grits and hominy were used interchangeably; later hominy meant whole kernels that had been skinned but not ground, while in the South it meant skinned kernels that could be ground coarsely to make grits, and in New Orleans whole kernels are "big hominy" and ground ones "little hominy".^[4] The dish of boiled ground maize is recorded from 1860, in M. H. Schoolcraft's Black Gauntlet.^[5] In African American slang grits came to mean food of any kind (1952, W. R. Burnett), and, influenced by nitty-gritty, anything regarded as a necessity, such as money or sex (1974, D. Goines).^[10]

Timeline

• early Old English – singular, apparently finely ground flour (obsolete).^[5]
• early Old English – plural, bran, coarse meal (obsolete).^[5][6]
• c. 1150 – the Middle English form grutta, bran, coarse meal.^[3]
• c. 1300 – husked oats, coarse oatmeal; later any coarsely ground grain.^[5]
• 1579 – the form grits, coarsely ground meal.^[3][7]
• 1860 – a dish of coarsely ground maize boiled with water or milk (US).^[5]
• 1952 – food of any kind, in African American slang.^[10]
• 1974 – slang, anything seen as a necessity.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Coarsely ground hulled grain, especially corn or hominy.^{[11][7][12][5]}
2. (US) A dish of coarsely ground maize boiled with water or milk, eaten at breakfast or as a side dish: a plate of shrimp and grits.^[12][13][5]
3. (US slang) Food in general.^[10]

Related words

• grout
• gruel
• nitty-gritty
• grit
• groats
• hominy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press