March 10, 2014 gritty • \GRIT-ee\ • adjective 1 : containing or resembling grit 2 : courageously persistent : plucky 3 : having strong qualities of tough uncompromising realism Examples: I admire her gritty determination to succeed. The first child of Johnny, Rosanne may not have her fathers gritty charisma but she shares his sense of truth in music, with a sensuous, poised style all her own. — From an article by Neil McCormick in the Daily Telegraph (London), February 8, 2014 Did you know? Gritty comes from grit (small hard granules), which in turn derives (via Middle English) from the Old English word for sand or gravel. Grit has been around since before the 12th century, but the first appearance of gritty in print in English was near the end of the 16th century, when it was used in the sense of resembling or containing small hard granules. Grit entered American slang in the early 19th century with the meaning courage or persistence, and, within about 20 years, gritty followed suit with a corresponding plucky sense. By the 19th centurys end, gritty was also being used to describe a literary style that was rough and coarse.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 01:37:57 +0000
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