growl

Etymology

The OED, the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Merriam-Webster take it as probably imitative,^[2][3][4][5] and Hoad thinks the modern word an independent imitative formation.^[6] Others connect it with Middle English grollen (“to rumble, growl”) (early 15th century), which they take from Old French grouler (“to rumble”),^[7][8][9] said to be from Frankish;^[7][9] Etymonline adds that it is probably imitative in the end.^[7] The MED instead derives it from Old French groler, a variant of croler (“to shake”).^[10] The Old French grouler, to grumble, scold, appears to be borrowed from Germanic, compare Middle Dutch grollen, Dutch grollen and German grollen (“to growl, sulk, nurse wrath”),^[2][11][12] and the 13th-century Walter of Bibbesworth used Anglo-Norman growler for the cry of the crane.^[2][6] The OED doubts the continuity: apart from one 14th-century record of the bowels rumbling, the word is not found before the 17th century.^[2] The noun is from the verb (1727).^[7][2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the bowels, to rumble: about 1390, in a sermon of Wycliffe's.^[2] Barnhart records grolling, rumbling in the bowels, from before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew, and groulen from before 1450, in a version of Piers Plowman.^[9]

Semantic evolution

After the medieval bowel sense, which is obsolete,^[2] the verb reappears in the 1660s^[7] for the low guttural sound of an angry animal, first recorded in 1671.^[2] It was used from 1706 of people murmuring angrily,^[2] from 1744 of thunder and other rumbling noises,^[2] and in 1759, in Johnson, transitively for uttering words in a growling way.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as to snarl or murmur like an angry cur.^[13] The noun followed in 1727, in John Gay's Fables,^[2][9] and in jazz from 1935 a growl is a deep rasping sound made on a wind instrument.^[2] In Australian slang a growl was also a fight or argument (1905).^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – of the bowels, to rumble (obsolete).^[2][9]
• 1671 – of an animal, to make a low guttural sound of anger.^[2]
• 1706 – of a person, to murmur angrily.^[2]
• 1727 – noun, a growling sound.^[2][7][9]
• 1744 – of thunder, to rumble.^[2]
• 1759 – transitive, to utter with a growl.^[2]
• 1821 – noun, an angry or discontented remark.^[2]
• 1935 – jazz, a deep rasping sound on a wind instrument.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of an animal, especially a dog, to make a low, guttural sound of hostility or warning.^[15][5][2]
2. To say something in a gruff or angry voice: He growled a reply without looking up.^[15][5][2]
3. To make a low rumbling sound like a growl, as thunder or an empty stomach.^[15][5][2]

Noun

1. A low, guttural sound, as made by an angry animal; the act of growling.^[15][5][2]
2. A deep rumbling sound like a growl.^[5][2]
3. An angry or discontented remark.^[2]

Word family

• growly
• growlingly
• undergrowl
• growler
• growling

Related words

• grumble
• gurl

Usage notes

The OED records two other, obsolete verbs growl: one from Middle Dutch growelen, used impersonally for feeling horror (1481, in Caxton's Reynard the Fox), and one from French grouiller, to swarm (1542).^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins