grout

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English growte, also grut,^[1][2] inherited from Old English grūt (“coarse meal; the residue of malt”),^{[3][2][4][5][6][7]} from Proto-West Germanic *grūt, from Proto-Germanic *grūtą.^[1][8] The Old English word corresponds to Middle Dutch grūte (“coarse meal, malt, yeast”) (whence gruit (“dregs”)), Middle High German grūz (“grain, small beer”), Old Frisian grēt (“sand”) and Old Norse grútr, a byname, beside Norwegian grut (“grounds”).^{[3][2][6][9][8]} Klein and Skeat compare Lithuanian grūdas (“corn, kernel”) and Latvian grūds.^[5][10] It is related to grit, grits and groats,^[3][2][9][6] and Etymonline traces the group to Proto-Indo-European *ghreu- (“to rub, grind”).^[11] Hoad thinks the later senses of the meal word owe something to Scandinavian, compare Old Norse grautr (“porridge”), and to Dutch.^[9] The thin mortar may be the same word, a technical use of the sense "coarse porridge",^{[2][11][5][12][3]} but the OED and the Oxford Dictionary of English compare French grouter, to grout a wall (16th century) and a Limousin dialect word of the same meaning.^[3][13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coarse meal, peeled grain, in Old English glossaries,^[3][7] which Barnhart dates to about 835.^[2] Old English medical texts also use it for the wet malt left over from brewing, as in a paste of "sour rye grout".^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

The meal word had several kitchen and brewing senses: ground malt grain (probably before 1150),^[2] the infusion of malt before and during fermentation, and small beer, now only dialectal;^[3][15] from about 1440 to 1671 it also named a plant used to flavour beer before hops came in.^[3] In 1587 it meant a coarse porridge,^[3][2] and in 1697, in Dryden, sediment or dregs.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as coarse meal or pollard and noted that the Scots called it groats.^[16] The builders' sense, a thin fluid mortar poured into the joints of masonry, is recorded from 1638,^[3][2] or the 1580s in Etymonline,^[11] and the verb "to fill with grout" from 1838.^[3][2][15] The Shorter Oxford notes that it now also means a waterproof cement paste for the gaps between wall and floor tiles.^[14] In English and Scots dialects grout was still the wort of beer in the 19th century, and the mortar word was used in many counties;^[17] the Yorkshire and Cheshire saying grout afore brass preferred good breeding to money.^[17] In Australian slang, on the grout meant in trouble (1919).^[18]

Timeline

• c. 835 – coarse meal.^[2] The OED records it in an Old English glossary.^[3]
• before 1150 – ground malt grain.^[2]
• c. 1440 – a plant used to flavour beer (obsolete by 1671).^[3]
• 1587 – coarse porridge.^[3][2]
• 1638 – thin fluid mortar for the joints of masonry.^[3][2] Etymonline gives the 1580s.^[11]
• 1697 – sediment, dregs.^[3]
• 1838 – verb, to fill up or finish with grout.^[3][2][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thin mortar or paste used to fill the joints between tiles, bricks or stones: Wipe off the extra grout before it dries.^[6][15][14]
2. A fine plaster used as a finishing coat.^[6]
3. (archaic) Coarse meal, or a porridge made from it.^[15][3][6]
4. Sediment, dregs or grounds.^[15][3]
5. (dialect) An infusion of malt for brewing; small beer.^[15][3]

Verb

1. To fill up or finish joints or a surface with grout: They grouted the kitchen tiles on Sunday.^[6][15][3]

Word family

• grouter

Related words

• grits
• gruel
• grit
• groats

Usage notes

Dictionaries also list words of other origins spelled grout.^[3][15][14] One is a verb used of a pig, to root in the ground with its snout (from before 1723), a variant of groot according to the OED;^[3][14] Merriam-Webster takes it as perhaps an alteration of an obsolete grewt, earth,^[15] and Weekley as coined from rout or root under the influence of grunt.^[12] It survived in Yorkshire and Wiltshire dialect.^[17] Another is an American verb meaning to grumble or sulk (1848), of uncertain origin,^[3][14] the source of grouty, sulky.^[14] Johnson's grout, "a kind of wild apple" (1755), arose from a misreading of a Latin gloss.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ 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
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ 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 c 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