grogram

Borrowed from French gros-grain (“coarse grain, a strong fabric”), from gros (“coarse”) + grain (“grain”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh₂- (“to grow old, mature”)).^[1] The word is a doublet of grosgrain which was borrowed later.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɒɡɹəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɑɡɹəm/
• Hyphenation: gro‧gram

grogram (countable and uncountable, plural grograms)

1. A strong, rough fabric made up of a mixture of silk, and mohair or wool.
   • p. 1597, J[ohn] Donne, “ Satyre IIII”, in Poems, with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: M F for Iohn Marriot, , published 1633, →OCLC, pages 339–340:

     Are not your Frenchmen neate? Fine, as you ſee, / I have but one frenchman, looke, hee followes mee. / Certes they are neatly cloth'd. I, of this minde am, / Your only wearing is your Grogaram; / Not ſo Sir, I have more.

   • 1598, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie. ”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: Will Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 18:

     Tell him, if he will, / He ſhall ha' the grogran's, at the rate I told him, / And I will meet him, on the Exchange, anon.

   • 1605 August (first performance), Geo[rge] Chapman, Ben Ionson, Ioh[n] Marston, Eastward Hoe. , London: [George Eld] for William Aspley, published September 1605, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii:

     I like ſome humors of the Cittie Dames well: to eate Cherries onely at an Angell a pound, good; to dye rich Scarlet black, pretty: to line a Grogaram gowne cleane thorough with veluet, tollerable; their pure linnen, their ſmocks of 3. li. a ſmock are to be borne withall. But your minſing nicetyes, taffata pipkins, durance petticotes & ſilver bodkins—Gods my life, as I ſhall be a Lady, I cannot indure it.

   • 1622 June 27, Thomas Roe, “To Mr. Secretary Caluert”, in The Negotiations of Sir Thomas Roe, in His Embassy to the Ottoman Porte, from the Year 1621 to 1628 inclusive: , London: Printed by Samuel Richardson, at the expence of the Society for the Encouragement of Learning; and sold by G Strahan, , published 1740, →OCLC, page 58:

     The merchants aduise mee, that there is intended a proclamation for the prohibition of grograms, which, if it may aduance our owne commodity, will be an act of good policy; but I am bound to informe, it will retrench halfe the trade of this port.

   • 1708, [Jonathan Swift], “The Metamorphosis of Baucis and Philemon, Burlesqu’d; from the 8th Book of Ovid”, in Baucis and Philemon; a Poem. , London: H. Hills, , published 1709, →OCLC, pages 7–8:

     Inſtead of Home-ſpun quoifs were ſeen / Good Pinners, edg'd with Colberteen: / Her Petticoats tra[n]sform'd apace, / Became Black Satin flounc'd with Lace. / Plain Goody would no longer down, / 'Twas Madam in her Grogram gown.

   • 1712 November 18 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, November 7, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 530; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume VI, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 72:

     The natural sweetness and innocence of her behaviour, the freshness of her complexion, the unaffected turn of her shape and person, shot me through and through every time I saw her, and did more execution upon me in grogram, than the greatest beauty in town or court had ever done in brocade.

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1785 September 17, “The Lounger”, in The British Essayists: , university edition, volume IV, number 33, London: Published by Jones and Company, , published 1828, →OCLC, page 67, column 1:

     [W]e shall have petulance and inattention, instead of bashful civility, because it is the fashion with fine folks to be easy; and rusticity shall be set off with impudence, like a grogram waistcoat with tinsel binding, that only makes its coarseness more disgusting.

   • 1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. , volume I (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, ; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. , →OCLC, page 305:

     Her mother [...] sat by the fire in the full glory of a grogram gown, lammer beads, and a clean cockernony, whiffing a snug pipe of tobacco, and superintending the affairs of the kitchen.

   • 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “The Games”, in Adam Bede , volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book third, page 197:

     An' here, they'n gi'en you lots o' good grogram an' flannel, as should ha' been gi'en by good rights to them as had the sense to keep away from such foolery. Ye might spare me a bit o' this grogram to make clothes for the lad—ye war ne'er ill-natur'd, Bess; I ne'er said that on ye.

   • 1997, Denis Orde, “Mutiny”, in Nelson’s Mediterranean Command: Concerning Pride, Preferment & Prize Money, Edinburgh: Pentland Press, →ISBN; republished as Nelson’s Mediterranean Command, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Books, 2014, →ISBN, page 38:

     The daily diet consisted of cheese, tough beef preserved in salt, pork, biscuits and half a pint of 'grog'. This was rum diluted with water to reduce its potency, as dictated by Admiral [Edward] Vernon back in 1740. Nicknamed 'Old Grogram' because of the grogram waterproof he so often wore, the rum ration took his nickname also.

   • 2001, Yamakawa Kikue, “Dress”, in Kate Wildman Nakai, transl., Women of the Mito Domain: Recollections of Samurai Family Life, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 46:

     They had known nothing of woolen cloth, but now the popularity of obi made of imported grogram spread like wildfire. This popularity produced various stories in its wake.

2. A garment made from this fabric.
   • 1824, Vicesimus Knox, “Evening LVIII. On the Danger and Folly of Innovation.”, in The Works of Vicesimus Knox, D.D. with a Biographical Preface. In Seven Volumes, volume III, London: Printed for J. Mawman, , →OCLC, pages 258–259:

     [W]ould you, Lady Alma, refuse to purchase a new gown, when by length of time your old grogram was worn to tatters, or grown so unfashionable as to excite ridicule in the very boys as you go to church?

• grogran

• grosgrain (“corded fabric with the weft heavier than the warp”)

• grog (speculatively)

• → French: gourgouran
  • → Catalan: gorgorà
  • → Portuguese: gorgorão
  • → Spanish: gorgorán

• grosgrain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “grogram”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.