gramme

Forms

gramme m (plural grammes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek γράμμα (grámma, “a small weight, one twenty-fourth of an ounce”),^[2][1][3] which Rey and the Grand Robert take through Late Latin gramma.^[4][5] The Greek word properly meant “letter, written character”, and comes from γράφω (gráphō, “to write”).^[5][6] Its sense as a weight came from a clumsy rendering of Latin scripulum or scrupulum, the twenty-fourth part of an ounce, which was wrongly taken to derive from scrībō (“to write”) and was therefore matched with the Greek word for a letter.^[2][3][5] In fact the Latin word is a diminutive of scrupus (“sharp stone”).^[4][7] Like mètre¹, the word was chosen for the new metric system.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in 1790 as a term of antiquity, in the Encyclopédie méthodique, for the ancient weight.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

On 13 November 1793 the Convention adopted it as the unit of weight of the metric system, and the law of 3 April 1793 had already given it this sense, according to Bloch and Wartburg.^[2][4][3] Its compounds, centigramme, décigramme, décagramme, hectogramme, milligramme and the now disused myriagramme, were all formed in 1795 by the law of 18 Germinal Year III, which set up the metric system.^[4] Of these, kilogramme, often shortened to kilo, became by far the most common.^[4]

By extension, gramme also means a very small amount of something, as in pas un gramme de.^[4][8] The technical grammage (1939) is the weight of a unit area of paper.^[4]

Timeline

• 1790 – Recorded as a term of antiquity in the Encyclopédie méthodique.^[2][4]
• 1793 – The Convention makes it the unit of weight of the metric system (session of 13 November).^[2][4]
• 1795 – The law of 18 Germinal Year III forms centigramme, milligramme and the other compounds.^[4][3]
• 1939 – The derivative grammage appears.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gram, a unit of mass equal to one thousandth of a kilogramme (symbol g).^[8][2]
2. (figurative) A very small quantity: Elle n'a pas un gramme de patience.^[8][4]

Word family

• centigramme
• kilogramme
• milligramme
• grammage

Related words

• grammaire
• Ancient Greek γράμμα (grámma)

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert