grosso

Forms

grosso (feminine grossa, masculine plural grossos, feminine plural grossas, comparable, comparative mais grosso, superlative o mais grosso or grossíssimo, metaphonic)^[1] The masculine has close /o/ and the feminine grossa and the plural grossos have open /ɔ/.^[1][2] Old Galician-Portuguese also wrote groso, as Galician does today.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin grossus (“thick”), written Old Galician-Portuguese grosso in the oldest texts.^[2][5][1][3]

The same Latin word is Galician groso, Spanish grueso, Catalan gros, French gros, Italian grosso and Romanian gros.^[6][4] The DHLF describes the Latin adjective as a popular remodelling of the classical crassus (“thick, fat”), whose /o/ suited the idea of bulk.^[7]

The Latin adjective is recorded from Columella in the 1st century AD; an older noun of the same form meant an unripe fig, from Cato on.^[8][1] Its origin is unknown: the comparison with Welsh bras (“thick”) made in Pokorny's dictionary does not hold, as Schrijver reconstructs the Welsh word differently.^[8] Wiktionary takes it for a slang word, perhaps related to *brassos.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria have lenna mui grossa “very thick firewood” and o bordon grosso quebrou “the thick staff broke”, and in the cantigas d'escarnho the word describes thick sleeves and a fat body.^[3] The sense was thickness or bulk of a body or object.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana uses the word of a pregnant woman, era ja quanto ẽno corpo grossa, and has a noun grosso “size, largeness”.^[3] A document of 1364 speaks of a cadea grosa, a thick chain.^[3]

In the 15th century grosso was a coin: Viterbo describes it as a coin of fine silver worth a real de prata, and the Cortes of Coimbra of 1472 speak of grossos and meios grossos.^[9] Houaiss explains the noun as a shortening of real grosso.^[2]

Bluteau uses the word for wood, stone, cloth and books, and Morais (1789) has the noun o grosso “the greater part”, as of an army, and em grosso “wholesale; without examination”.^[10][11] Figueiredo (1899) adds the slang sense “drunk”, still found in Portuguese dialects.^[12][13] In Brazil, Angola and Mozambique the word means “rude, ill-mannered” and is also a noun for a rude person.^[2][14]

The word passed into Kabuverdianu as grós, into Nheengatu as grusu and into the Malay of Ambon as garos.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• 13th century – grossura “thickness”.^[15]
• 1364 – cadea grosa in a document.^[3]
• c. 1430 – grosso in the Horto do Esposo.^[16]
• 1472 – the Cortes of Coimbra mention the coins grossos and meios grossos.^[9]
• 16th century – grossidão “thickness”.^[17]
• 17th century – grosseiro “coarse”, adapted from French grossier.^[18]
• 1789 – Morais records the noun o grosso “the greater part” and em grosso.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the slang sense “drunk”.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. thick, of large diameter compared with others of its kind: uma corda grossa.^[2][19][1]
2. Dense, viscous: uma sopa grossa; of salt, not refined.^[2][1]
3. Bulky, stout, corpulent.^[2][20]
4. Large in amount; abundant, considerable: grossas somas.^[2][21]
5. Serious, grave in its consequences.^[2][19]
6. Rough to the touch; coarse in texture: pele grossa.^[2][19][1]
7. Badly made, crude, ordinary.^[2][1]
8. Of a voice or sound, deep, low.^[2][19][1]
9. Of the sea, rough, with big waves.^[2][22]
10. (Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, informal) rude, uncouth, ill-mannered; also as a noun, a rude person.^[2][23][1]
11. (slang) drunk.^[21][20]

Noun

1. The greater or main part of something: o grosso das encomendas.^[2][23]
2. (history) An old Portuguese silver coin, the real grosso.^[2][23][12]

Adverb

1. Much, heavily; in a deep or loud voice: falar grosso “to speak with authority”.^[2][23]

Word family

• grossura
• engrossar
• grossidão

Related words

• grosseiro
• Latin grossus
• Spanish grueso
• Galician groso

Usage notes

Em grosso means “wholesale”, as opposed to retail.^[2][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. grosso
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. grosso
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. grossus
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. grosso
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3881
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. gros
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. grossus
9. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 24
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. grosso
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 102
12. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. grosso
13. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. grosso
14. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. grosso
15. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. grossura
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. grosso
17. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. grossidão
18. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. grosseiro
19. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. grosso
20. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. grosso
21. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4795
22. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. grosso
23. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. grosso