engrosser

Forms

engrosser^[1] Old French also engroissier.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Old French engroissier, reshaped after the adjective gros.^[2][3] The Old French verb was formed with the prefix en- from Old French groisse (“bulk, thickness”) (1155), which goes back to Vulgar Latin *grossia (“thickness”), from the Late Latin adjective grossus (“thick”).^[2][3][4] Bloch and Wartburg note that the noun also meant “pregnancy”, and that Old Occitan had groissa (“thickness”) from the same Vulgar Latin word.^[5] Wiktionary analyses the modern verb simply as the prefix en- with the adjective and the ending -er.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1130–1140 in Wace's Conception Nostre Dame, used intransitively of a pregnant woman growing big.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the verb meant “to grow big”, and by 1155 Wace also used engroissier figuratively for “to swell”.^[2][3] About 1240 engroissier meant “to become pregnant”,^[2] and the transitive sense “to make (a woman) pregnant”, the one that has lived on, is found about 1283 in Beaumanoir, who writes of the man qui l'engrossa hors mariage “who got her with child outside marriage”.^[3][6][7] The general sense “to make big” lasted into Middle French: Froissart wrote that a man's heart engrossa within him.^[6] Today the verb is coarse or familiar.^[8][2]

In Anglo-Norman, engrosser meant to fatten, to buy up goods in advance, and to write out a legal document in its final copy in large letters.^[9] The English verb engross in the legal-writing sense comes from the Anglo-Norman verb.^[10]

Timeline

• 1130–1140 – First record, in Wace's Conception Nostre Dame, “to grow big” of a pregnant woman.^[2]
• 1155 – Wace uses engroissier for “to swell”, and groisse “bulk”.^[2]
• c. 1240 – Engroissier means “to become pregnant”.^[2]
• c. 1283 – Beaumanoir uses it transitively, “to make pregnant”.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, vulgar) To make (a woman) pregnant, to impregnate.^[8][2][1]

Related words

• gros
• grossesse
• grossir
• 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 i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com