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Monday, 23 February 2015

G is for gross

For some reason, I love words that have multiple meanings, those words that are considered true homonyms. So it is for the word GROSS. It is an old word; from the The Free Dictionary: 1350–1400; Middle English < Old French gros large (as n., grosse twelve dozen) < Late Latin grossus thick, coarse.

  So GROSS means large, big, or bulky. Or brutishly coarse, as in behavior; crude. Or disgusting and offensive.

  But it also means exclusive of deductions; the total.

  For instance, the gross profits of a business are those profits before various deductions, such as labor and cost of good sold. Your cereal box or can of soup gives you the net weight of the food; the gross weight would include all the packaging.

  Of course, as alluded to in the in the definition, it also means, specifically, twelve dozen, or 144.

 We have often had more than half that total many times this GO round. I'm so GLAD we've had a GROSSLY (i.e., large) successful start with ABC Wednesday.

  However, in a bit of irony, our GROUP of visitors are GROSSLY overextended in terms of the number of GUESTS they can visit. It would be GREAT if some of you could GRACIOUSLY agree to visit other folks and/or write these GOOFY intros.

  Contact me at my email: ROGEROGREEN (at) GMAIL (dot) COM

  Oh, here's a GOODY I may not have mentioned: if you GOOF up when you post to the Linky thing, leaving some GLARING problem sch as a link that does not work, it's supposedly allows you to delete and start over. But if that does NOT work, you can write to the same e-mail, tell me what the URL is supposed to be, and I will see if I can fix it.
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13 comments:

  1. Anita Sabat24 February 2015 at 07:05

    That's great, Roger!
    Gross is a good word when it comes to Accountancy, but not when it's meant for disgusting :)

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  2. ellen b.24 February 2015 at 08:02

    Thanks, Roger! You are quite helpful and your introduction to G was good!

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  3. Nonnie24 February 2015 at 15:34

    The problem now-a-days is keeping up with new meanings for words already in our vocabulary and words being coined! I'm grateful for you and the others who keep this interesting meme going.

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  4. Chrissy Brand25 February 2015 at 01:07

    Gladly got geed up by this gross post...

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  5. Melbourne Australia Photos25 February 2015 at 05:28

    Good grief! Gross indeed!
    My "G" stands for GARDEN! Our own garden in fact.
    Thanks for hosting.

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  6. Melbourne Australia Photos25 February 2015 at 06:20

    And G is Greece, Rhodes island in particular.
    Thank you for hosting.

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  7. My Desktop Daily25 February 2015 at 06:41

    Thanks for hosting. My entry: GOLD COAST, Australia

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  8. Su-sieee! Mac25 February 2015 at 15:53

    Cool intro. If only my gross pay was gross (as in large) rather than grossly small.

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  9. Louisette26 February 2015 at 15:13

    Have a nice end week,Greeting from Belgium in Mons

    http://louisette.eklablog.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Meoww26 February 2015 at 21:01

    I do enjoy the puns that are possible with homonyms :D
    Have a lovely week!

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  11. Rosy27 February 2015 at 00:08

    I never really look at the meaning of the word Gross and how it is used other than when I see or smell something totally utterly Gross. ha ha ha

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  12. Obsessivemom27 February 2015 at 03:43

    Lovely intro Roger. Homonyms are interesting though we do end up using gross most often for gross things rather than as a number. And it also reminded me of my accounts class which I was exceptionally bad at. Now that's a gross feeling :-).

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  13. Black Jack's Carol28 February 2015 at 11:29

    I hear you, Roger! I'm feeling very Guilty for not doing more to Generate comments for a meme that I so Greatly appreciate.

    ReplyDelete