grub

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English grubben, also grobben and gruben,^[2][3][4] probably inherited from Old English *grybban or *grubbian, a verb not recorded in Old English,^{[5][6][7][8][2]} from Proto-West Germanic *grubbjan,^[5][6][7] a variant of the Germanic base of grave and of grafan (“to dig”).^[6][9][3][8] Etymonline takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, bury, scratch”).^[5][10] It is related to Middle Dutch grobben (“to scrape together”), Dutch grobbelen (“to root, feel about”), Old High German grubilōn (“to dig, search”), whence German grübeln (“to ponder, brood”), and Old Norse gryfja (“pit, hole”),^{[6][9][11][3]} and, through another variant of the base, to groove.^[8] The OED and the Shorter Oxford call the origin uncertain.^[9][11]

The noun, an insect larva, is grubbe,^[3][4] probably from the verb,^{[11][3][6][9]} as a "digging insect".^[5][4] Etymonline and Ayto note that it could equally come from the Middle English grub (“a dwarfish fellow”), recorded about 1400, an obscure word that may have a separate source;^[5][8] Barnhart and Hoad find this sense in the surname Grubbe much earlier, in 1176 or the 13th century.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To dig in the ground: about 1300 in Etymonline,^[5] before 1325 in Barnhart, who cites Cursor Mundi for "dig, root up".^[6] The OED's earliest record is about 1320, for pulling out hair by the roots, a sense obsolete after 1633.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb meant to dig in the earth with a tool, to dig up soil, to dig round the roots of a vine, and to pull out beard or hair.^[2][9] The sense "to dig up by the roots" is recorded from the 1550s,^[5][9] and in later use digging came to suggest mean or grovelling labour, so that from 1735 grub meant to toil or drudge,^[9][6][7] and then, from 1800, to search or rummage in an undignified way.^[9] Students' slang of the 1830s used it for studying hard.^[12]

The noun grub for a larva is recorded from the early 15th century,^[5][9] and Johnson (1755) defined it as a small worm that eats holes in things, quoting Shakespeare's Coriolanus.^[13] The older sense "short person" died out after the early 18th century;^[9] from the 1650s a grub was a dull drudge or literary hack,^[5][9] which Weekley links with Grub Street, where such writers lived in the 17th century.^[14] The slang sense "food" is first recorded in 1659;^[9][12][6] it is usually said to come from birds eating grubs, and it is often paired with bub, drink.^[5][8][7] Green's Dictionary of Slang instead explains it as food one has "grubbed up".^[12] The verb "to eat" followed in 1725.^[9] In Scottish and Irish dialect grub meant food, and in Yorkshire and Cheshire any small worm;^[15] a grub was also a cricket ball bowled along the ground (1870).^[9][15]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – verb, to dig in the ground.^[5] Barnhart dates it before 1325, in Cursor Mundi.^[6]
• c. 1320 – to pluck out hair by the roots (obsolete after 1633).^[9]
• c. 1400 – noun, a short or dwarfish person (obsolete after 1706).^[9][5]
• c. 1420 – the larva of an insect.^[9]
• 1558 – to dig up by the roots, to uproot.^[9]
• 1653 – a dull drudge; later a slovenly person.^[9][5]
• 1659 – food.^[9][12]
• 1725 – to eat.^[9]
• 1735 – to toil or drudge.^[9][6]
• 1800 – to search or rummage.^[9]
• 1870 – in cricket, a ball bowled along the ground.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To clear land of roots and stumps by digging; to dig the surface of the ground.^[3][16][9]
2. To dig up by the roots, often with up or out: They grubbed up the old hedge.^[16][3][9]
3. To search by digging or rummaging: She grubbed through the drawer for a pen.^[16][9]
4. To toil or drudge at dull, hard work.^[16][9]
5. (slang) To eat.^[9][12]

Noun

1. A soft, thick, worm-like larva of an insect, especially of a beetle.^[3][9]
2. A dull, hard-working drudge; a person of slovenly looks or bad manners.^[3][9]
3. (informal) Food: Let's get some grub before the film.^[3][9][12]
4. (cricket) A ball bowled along the ground.^[9][15]
5. (obsolete, 1400–1706) A short or dwarfish person.^[9][7]

Word family

• grubber
• grubby
• grubstake
• grubworm
• mulligrubs

Related words

• grave
• groove
• Grub Street
• engrave

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ 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 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
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. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins