My seven-year-old grandson pointed at a mess and said, ‘That’s grotty!’—which started me thinking about this word ‘grot.’ It’s recorded only from around 1970, so it’s not that old.
‘Grot’ can mean ‘rubbish, dirt and grime’ in general, or it can mean ‘a person who is unpleasant, dirty or ugly’ (Oxford).
But the adjectival form of the word, ‘grotty’, is a little older—being recorded from 1964—so that must be the source.
As for the origin of the word, well, without checking any of the expert sources my best guess would have said that ‘grot’ was a portmanteau word—blending ‘greasy’ with ‘rotten,’
That would certainly give us the meaning we’re familiar with, wouldn’t it?
However, the great Oxford insists that ‘grotty’ is a shortened form of ‘grotesque.’
Now, I’ll take their word for it, after all they are the experts.
But it does look a little puzzling to me—because ‘grotty’ and ‘grotesque’ have fairly different meanings.
‘Grotesque’ came into English from French (well, you can tell that from looking at the spelling of the word, can’t you?)
These days ‘grotesque’ is used to mean that something is unpleasant or unattractive especially in a way that shocks you or is frightening.
I’ve seen the word used in advertising horror movies.
When the experts look backwards at the sources, and the history, of ‘grotesque’ they say it might have originally meant something like ‘painting appropriate to grottoes.’
The Oxford has an explanatory note saying that ‘grotto’ was ‘the popular name in Rome for the chambers of ancient buildings which had been revealed by excavations, and which contained those mural paintings that were the typical examples of “grotesque”.’
So, they say the word history (possibly) begins with paintings in ‘grottoes’ that were unattractive (or even ugly) in some way to later Romans; in the 20th century this was clipped down to ‘grotty’ and then clipped again into ‘grot.’
Well, I suppose that must be how it happened.
Anyway, for my seven-year-old grandson ‘grot’ just means anything that’s ‘yuck’—which is a whole other word, and another story.
And I might just investigate that a little, tomorrow.
Tonight, I will join Peta Credlin on Sky News for "Words Matter."
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