grouse

English
WOTD – 5 January 2021

Pronunciation
A male spruce grouse (Dendragapus canadensis, syn. Falcipennis canadensis; sense 1) in Acadia National Park, Maine, USA.
A red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica; sense 1) near Amulree in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, UK.

Etymology 1

Attested in the 1530s, as grows ("moorhen"), a plural used collectively. The origin of the noun is unknown;[1] the following derivations have been suggested:

The verb is derived from the noun.[3]

Noun

grouse (countable and uncountable, plural grouse or grouses)

  1. (countable) Any of various game birds of the subfamily Tetraoninae which inhabit temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere; specifically, the red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica) native to heather moorland on the British Isles. [from 1530s]
    (red grouse): Synonyms: moorbird, moorcock, moorfowl
    • 1531 January, “XXI. Extracts from a MS. Dated ‘apud Eltham, mense Jan. 22 Hen. VIII.’ Communicated to the Society by Owen Salusbury Brereton, Esq; Read at the Society of Antiquaries, April 9, 1772.”, in Archaeologia: Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, volume III, London: […] Society [of Antiquaries of London]; and by Messieurs Whiston, White, Robson, Baker and Leigh, and Brown, published 1775, →OCLC, page 157:
      Among fowls for the table [of King Henry VIII] are crocards, winders, runners, grows, and peions, but neither Turky or Guiney-fowl.
    • 1633 (first performance), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “A Tale of a Tub. A Comedy […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second Folio), London: […] Richard Meighen, published 1640, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 70:
      Looke to 't, young growſe: Ile lay it on, and ſure; / Take 't off who's wull.
      Used as an insult.
  2. (uncountable) The flesh or meat of this bird eaten as food.
Derived terms
Translations
Lagopus lagopus scotica — see red grouse

Verb

grouse (third-person singular simple present grouses, present participle grousing, simple past and past participle groused)

  1. (intransitive) To hunt or shoot grouse.
Translations

Etymology 2

The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly borrowed from Norman groucier, from Old French groucier, grousser (“to grumble, murmur”) [and other forms] (whence grutch (“to complain; to murmur”) and grouch). The further etymology is unknown, but it may be derived from Frankish *grōtijan (“to make cry, scold, rebuke”) or of onomatopoeic origin.[4]

The noun is derived from the verb.[5]

Verb

grouse (third-person singular simple present grouses, present participle grousing, simple past and past participle groused)

  1. (intransitive, originally military slang, informal) To complain or grumble. [from late 19th c.]
    • 1890, Kipling, The Young British Soldier:
      If you're cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind,
      Don't grouse like a woman, nor crack on, nor blind;
      Be handy and civil, and then you will find
      That it's beer for the young British soldier.
    • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
      Grouse away!" he growled. "If grousin' made a man happy, you'd be the champion."
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

grouse (plural grouses)

  1. (informal) A cause for complaint; a grumble. [from early 20th c.]
Translations

Etymology 3

Uncertain;[6] possibly from British dialectal groosh (“excellent, very good”) (Lothian (Scotland)),[7] grosh (northeast Lancashire) and groshy (“having thriving vegetation; juicy and tender; of weather: good for vegetation, rainy”) (Lancashire, Yorkshire),[8] grushie (“having thriving vegetation”) (Scotland);[9] from Scots groosh (“excellent, very good”) (Lothian, obsolete),[10] grush (obsolete), grushie, grushy (“growing healthily or lushly; excellent, very good”) (both archaic), from gross (“lacking refinement, coarse; fat; large”) + -ie (suffix meaning ‘rather, somewhat’).[11]

Adjective

grouse (comparative grouser, superlative grousest)

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Excellent. [from 1920s]
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:excellent
    Antonyms: see Thesaurus:bad
    I had a grouse day.    That food was grouse.
    • 1965, Mudrooroo, Wild Cat Falling, HarperCollins, published 2001, page 99:
      Real grouse birthday this. First time he's had a party.
    • 1991, Tim Winton, Cloudstreet, Scribner Paperback Fiction, published 2002, page 182:
      They were the grousest ladies she′d ever met.
    • 1998 July 23, Stujo, “SPOILER FTF - questions”, in aus.tv.x-files‎ (Usenet):
      Not a question but the gag of Mulder pissing on the ID4 poster was grouse.
    • 2003 October 4, Leeroy, “FS Ultralight Aircraft”, in aus.motorcycles‎ (Usenet):
      I know, but I moved from riding bikes to flying and it is a great move. All riders without a fear of heights I know that flew with me thought it was grouse- and there are no coppers or speed limits up there.
Translations
excellent — see excellent

References
  1. “grouse, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1900.
  2. “grouse1, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. “grouse, v.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1900.
  4. Compare “grouse, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1900; “grouse2, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022; “grutch, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1900.
  5. Compare “grouse, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1933; “grouse2, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  6. Compare “grouse, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1972; “grouse3, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  7. Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “GROOSH, adj.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 738, column 1.
  8. Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “GROSHY, adj.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 739, column 1.
  9. Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “GRUSHIE, adj.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 750, column 2.
  10. The template Template:R:Dictionary of the Scottish Language does not use the parameter(s): 
    pos=adj
    Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.    John Jamieson (1825) “GROOSH”, in Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: […], volumes I (A–J), Edinburgh: […] University Press; for W[illiam] & C[harles] Tait, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, page 515, column 2.
  11. “GRUSHIE, -Y, adj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC; “-IE, suff.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ɡʁuz/

Noun

grouse m (plural grouses)

  1. grouse

Further reading
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