grocer

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English grocer, also groser and grosser,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman groser, also grosser,^[4][2][5][6] and Anglo-Norman and Middle French grossier (“wholesaler”),^[4][7][3][8] from Medieval Latin grossārius (“dealer in gross, wholesaler”),^[4][7][6][9] formed from Late Latin grossus (“thick, coarse, great”), the source of gross, and -ārius.^{[4][7][6][9][10]} Merriam-Webster takes the French word as formed from gros (“thick, coarse, wholesale”) and -ier.^[3] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1255 for a wholesaler and also as a surname,^[11] and the OED thinks that early surnames such as Johannes le Grocere (1255) reflect the Anglo-Norman rather than the English word.^[4][12][7] The same Latin word is the source of Spanish grosero and Italian grossista.^[7] Johnson held that it should be spelled grosser, from gross, or else came from Latin for a fig.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A wholesale dealer or merchant: 1418–19, in a London record of the Grocers' fraternity.^[4][2][12] The Middle English Dictionary gives wine, spices, drugs and foods as typical goods, and an Anglo-Norman statute of 1363 already complains of merchants called grossers who engross all kinds of goods.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant one who bought and sold "in gross", that is, wholesale.^[9][14][10] The Grocers' Company of London, incorporated in 1344, was a body of wholesale dealers in spices and foreign produce, and that is how the word came to mean a dealer in such goods.^[14][10][12] Ayto notes that in Britain it was restricted almost from the start to merchants in spices and similar imported foods, and that by the mid 15th century it was used for retailers who sold them in small amounts.^[9] The OED records this retail sense from 1465;^[4] Barnhart doubts that it was usual before 1578, or even before the 1700s, when greengrocer (1723) sharpened the distinction,^[12] and Etymonline places it in the 16th century, noting that a Middle English seller of such goods was a spicer.^[7] The wholesale sense died out in the late 17th century, except in the name of the livery company.^[5][4] Johnson (1755) defined a grocer as one who sells tea, sugar, plums and spices.^[13] From 1749 the possessive grocer's also named the shop itself.^[4]

Timeline

• 1418 – a wholesale dealer or merchant.^[4][2][12]
• 1465 – a person who sells food and household supplies to the public.^[4]
• 1749 – grocer's, a grocery shop.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who sells foodstuffs and other household supplies, or a shop that sells them: She bought flour and candles at the grocer's.^[15][3][4]
2. (obsolete) A wholesale dealer or merchant, one who buys and sells in large quantities.^[4][5][2]

Word family

• greengrocer

Related words

• grocery
• gross
• engross

References

1. ^ a b 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ 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.
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins