grosero

Forms

grosero (feminine grosera, masculine plural groseros, feminine plural groseras)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish grueso + -ero.^[2][1][3] The old spelling with ⟨ss⟩, found in the Diccionario de Autoridades, reflects the voiceless /s/ that grueso had in the old language.^[4][5] The adjective continues Latin grossus (“thick”), a Late Latin adjective of uncertain origin.^[4][6][1] Echegaray compared French grossier, Occitan grossier, Portuguese grosseiro and Catalan grosser.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's first record is groseras in Alfonso XI's Libro de la montería (1342–1350).^[8] The Old Spanish Textual Archive has it in two manuscripts of the late 14th century, a Spanish version of Plutarch's Lives and of the Secretum secretorum.^[9] Corominas dated it to 1444.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias (1611) gave both: of a man and his speech, “rustic, uncourtly”, and of anything made without polish or skill.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) spelled it grossero and quoted un xergon de paja vil y grossero “a mean, coarse straw mattress” and Calderón's un grossero, un atrevido, un villano.^[5] Domínguez (1846–1847) added “gross” of errors and ignorance, and the DLE now has “inexact” and, of an error, “obvious and serious”.^[12][2]

In the Americas the word is recorded from 1516 in Puerto Rico, of coarse black caps.^[13] In parts of Latin America it means “aggressive”, “unjust, abusive” or “greedy, gluttonous”.^[14] Garzón noted in 1910 that in Argentina the sense “coarse” was hardly used, and that the word meant “clumsy”.^[15]

Timeline

• 1342–1350 – groseras in the Libro de la montería.^[8]
• 1376 – in manuscripts of Plutarch's Lives and of the Secretum secretorum.^[9]
• 1444 – Corominas's date of first record.^[10]
• 1490 – the derivative grosería is recorded.^[10]
• 1516 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “rustic, uncourtly”.^[11]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades, as grossero.^[5]
• 1899 – the Academy gives grueso as the source.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person: rude, lacking manners or tact; also as a noun: No seas grosero con tu abuela.^[2][17]
2. Typical of a rude person: un comentario grosero.^[2]
3. Of a thing: in bad taste, vulgar.^[2]
4. Of a thing: of poor quality or unrefined, coarse: una tela grosera.^[2][17]
5. Lacking precision, rough: un cálculo grosero.^[2]
6. Of an error or a fake: obvious and serious, gross.^[2]
7. (Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay) Of a person: aggressive in word or deed.^[14]

Word family

• grosería
• groseramente

Related words

• grueso
• grosor
• grosura
• engrosar
• Latin grossus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. grosero
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. grosero
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 223
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 82
6. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. grueso
7. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 584
8. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. grosero
9. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
10. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grueso
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 938
12. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 895
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. grosero
14. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. grosero
15. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 230
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 504
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grosero