gruff

Etymology

It is apparently borrowed from Middle Dutch grof (“coarse, thick, large”) or Middle Low German grof,^[2][3][4] or, as the OED and the Shorter Oxford put it, a Dutch or Flemish grof;^[5][6] the American Heritage Dictionary takes the Dutch word from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German.^[4] It came in first in Scots, probably through trade.^[7][5][8] The word is cognate with Old High German girob and grob, Middle High German gerop and modern German grob (“coarse, rough”),^[5][9][10] from Proto-Germanic *grubaz (“coarse, rough”).^[1][11][12] Its further origin is uncertain:^[5][2] some scholars take it as the Germanic prefix Proto-Germanic *ga- with the weak grade Proto-West Germanic *hruƀ- of the root of Old English hrēof (“rough, scabby”) and Old Norse hrjúfr.^[5][7][3][2] Barnhart and Klein connect it with Lithuanian kraupùs (“rough”) and trace it to Proto-Indo-European *kreup-,^[3][9] while Orel compares grubùs (“rough, stiff, rigid”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coarse, coarse-grained; containing coarse particles: 1533, in John Gau's Scots translation of Christiern Pedersen.^[5][3][2] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the word to the late 15th century.^[6][13]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense survives only in Scots and in technical use.^[5][7] In Scotland the word was also used of immaterial things, rude or unpolished, from 1681.^[5] The sense of manner, rough, surly or sour, is recorded from 1691,^[5][2] and Barnhart finds it first in the noun gruffness (1690–91).^[3] By about 1712 it was used of the voice, hoarse and deep.^[5][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "sour of aspect; harsh of manners", quoting Garth and Addison.^[14] In the dialects it meant surly or sullen in Scotland, Yorkshire and Lancashire.^[15] The verb, to treat gruffly, is recorded from 1706,^[5][16] later in Yorkshire dialect for to grunt or snore,^[5][15] and since 1925 for to say something gruffly, chiefly in American use.^[5]

Timeline

• 1533 – coarse, coarse-grained.^[5][3]
• 1681 – of immaterial things, rude or unpolished (Scottish).^[5]
• 1691 – rough, surly or sour in manner.^[5][2]
• 1706 – verb, to treat gruffly (now obsolete).^[5][16]
• before 1712 – of the voice, hoarse and deep.^[5][3]
• 1855 – verb, in Yorkshire dialect, to grunt or snore.^[5]
• 1857 – noun, a quarrel or tiff, perhaps in American regional use.^[5]
• 1925 – verb, to say in a gruff manner.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Rough, abrupt or surly in manner or speech: a gruff answer from the porter.^[8][16][5]
2. Of a voice: low, deep and hoarse.^[8][5]
3. (chiefly Scottish) Coarse-grained, coarse.^[16][5]

Verb

1. To say something in a gruff manner.^[16][5]

Word family

• gruffly
• gruffness
• gruffish
• ungruff

Related words

• grobian

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b 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 e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster