GRATUITOUS

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

GRATUITOUS

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Jul 02, 2007 10:55 pm

• gratuitous •

Pronunciation: græ-tu-ê-tês • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. (Given) without expectation of anything in return, free, for nothing, voluntary. 2. Without call, added or given for no reason, unwarranted, unjustified.

Notes: The noun that this word is based on is gratuity "a tip", money given over and above the charge for a service. In the States, we give gratuities to cabbies, various hotel employees, waiters in restaurants, and others. In fact, gratuities are expected so much in these jobs that salaries are usually lowered in lieu of income on tips. Anyway, because this noun has such a specific meaning, the noun for today's Good Word is gratuitousness. The adverb is gratuitously.

In Play: The first meaning of today's Good Word remains "free, for nothing", as in: "Without the gratuitous help of his supporters, Chick Pease could not have won the election." The other meaning refers to something that is added or provided without motivation, for no reason: "I'm sure that the gratuitous violence on TV these days is no worse for our kids to watch than violence justified by the plot."

Word History: Today's Good Word is Latin gratuitus "free, spontaneous, voluntary", unchanged save for an O added to the suffix. The Latin adjective comes from the noun gratia "favor" which, in turn, was built on the adjective gratus "pleasing." The same Latin root turns up in many English words borrowed from Latin, including gracious, gratitude, and congratulate. The Proto-Indo-European root behind the Latin words, gwer- "to favor", apparently also appeared in a compound made up of gwer "favor" + dho "to do", which went on to become Celtic bardo- and, finally, Gaelic bàrd "bard". This word originally referred to a wandering minstrel, who would favor you with a song or poem. This word was borrowed by English and went on to become the epithet of its greatest writer, The Bard, William Shakespeare.
• The Good Dr. Goodword

User avatar
gailr
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1945
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:40 am
Contact:

Postby gailr » Tue Jul 03, 2007 12:26 am

Meaning: 1. (Given) without expectation of anything in return, free, for nothing, voluntary. 2. Without call, added or given for no reason, unwarranted, unjustified.
This reminds me of lagniappe, which is also the name of an interesting little shop I liked in Des Moines.

Perry
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2306
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:50 am
Location: Asheville, NC

Postby Perry » Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:02 am

In Nice, the langniappe at vegatable mongers is usually a bouquet of parsley.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Postby Stargzer » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:33 pm

That's nice of them.
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Re: GRATUITOUS

Postby Stargzer » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:55 pm

...Word History: Today's Good Word is Latin gratuitus "free, spontaneous, voluntary", unchanged save for an O added to the suffix. The Latin adjective comes from the noun gratia "favor" which, in turn, was built on the adjective gratus "pleasing." The same Latin root turns up in many English words borrowed from Latin, including gracious, gratitude, and congratulate. ...
I'll wager it's also the root of Spanish gracias.

At the end of the Latin Mass the priest would say, "Ite Missa est" (literal translation: "Go, the Mass is" usually translated as "Go, the Mass is ended." The people responded "Deo gratias" (Thanks be to God). When the Mass began to be said in the vernacular (English for us), there were two ways to take that "Go, the Mass is ended. Thanks be to God!" phrasing. I believe the priest now says "The Mass is ended. Go in peace and love to serve the Lord" to which the people reply "Thanks be to God." That makes it seem less of a sigh of relief. ;-)
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Amazon [Bot] and 55 guests