grocery English · revision 10330

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=1436|origins=en grocer|origins=fro grosserie}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈɡɹəʊ.s(ə.)ɹi/ ''(UK)''; /ˈɡɹoʊ.s(ə.)ɹi/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English grocerie, from [[grocer]] with the suffix -y,^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002) or from Old French grosserie, from grossier, a wholesale merchant.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Goods sold by a grocer: the mid-15th century, 1436 in the OED;^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) earlier, in the early 15th century, the name of the Grocers' Hall in London.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The trade of a grocer is from 1689.^(OED 1989) A grocer's shop is by 1803, especially in American English, where that use restricted the sense of goods sold by a grocer to the plural, ''groceries'', by the mid-19th century.^(Etymonline) In American usage of 1828–32 a grocery could also be a dram-shop.^(OED 1989) Self-service groceries were a novelty in 1913, when a Montana firm trademarked ''groceteria'', a word that lasted through the 1920s.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * early 15th century – the Grocers' Hall.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1436 – goods sold by a grocer.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1689 – the grocer's trade.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1803 – a grocer's shop.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1913 – groceteria.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A shop selling food and household supplies.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(groceries)'' The goods sold by a [[grocer]].^(AHD)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[greengrocery]]

+ * [[groceryman]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[greengrocer]]

+ * [[grocer]]

+ * [[gross]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}