Gros
/ɡroʊs/noun
An obsolete English variant of “gross,” meaning a quantity of 144 items, or twelve dozen.
Did you know?The word belongs to the medieval vocabulary of wholesale trade, where “gross” quantities contrasted with “net” quantities after deductions.
Etymological Timeline
Classical Latin
Latin
grossus
“Thick, coarse, large, or massive”
12th–13th Century
Old French
gros
“Large, thick, substantial; also used in commercial expressions”
13th–14th Century
Anglo-Norman
gros
“A large or aggregate quantity in trade”
14th Century
Middle English
gros
“A quantity of twelve dozen, or 144 items”
15th Century
English
gross
“The standardized form increasingly used for the quantity of 144”
Modern English
English
gros
“An obsolete or rare variant of “gross””