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Origin and history of grout

grout(n.)

"thin, fluid mortar" used in joints of masonry and brickwork, 1580s, extended from sense "coarse porridge," perhaps from Old English gruta (plural) "coarse meal," from Proto-Germanic *grut-, from PIE root *ghreu- "to rub, grind" (see grit (n.)). As a verb from 1838. Related: grouted; grouting.

Entries linking to grout

Old English greot "sand, dust, earth, gravel," from Proto-Germanic *greutan "tiny particles of crushed rock" (source also of Old Saxon griot, Old Frisian gret, Old Norse grjot "rock, stone," German Grieß "grit, sand"), from PIE *ghreu- "rub, grind" (source also of Lithuanian grūdas "corn, kernel," Old Church Slavonic gruda "clod"). Sense of "pluck, spirit, firmness of mind" first recorded American English, 1808.

If he hadn't a had the clear grit in him, and showed teeth and claws, they'd a nullified him so, you wouldn't have see'd a grease spot of him no more. [Thomas Chandler Haliburton, "Sam Slick in England," 1843]
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