groats, n. pl.
(grəʊts, grɔːts)
Forms: (? 1 grotan), 5 grotene, 4–6, 8 grotes, 5–6 Sc. grotis, 4, 6–8 grots, (6 groots), 6–9 grotts, (6 grottes), 7– groats.
[OE. *grotan wk. pl., cogn. w. grot neut., fragment, particle (see grot1), and with grit n.2, q.v. for other connexions.
The word first occurs in an interpolation written c 1200 on the margin of an 11th c. MS.; it is there spelt gratan, but as the passage is a blundered and half-modernized transcript from something of earlier date, there is little risk in correcting it to grotan, which is pre-supposed by the northern ME. forms. The OE. form is commonly cited as grátan, but this admits of no known etymology, and is irreconcilable with the phonetic history of the word.
With reference to the pronunciation cf. groat.]
1. Hulled, or hulled and crushed grain of various kinds, chiefly oats, but also wheat, barley, and † maize. embden groats: crushed barley or oats.
| ? a 1100 [MS. c 1200] Sax. Leechd. III. 292 Nim atena grotan [MS. gratan]. [1324–5 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) I. 14 In Grotis emp. pro exitibus, 3d.] c 1358 Ibid. 561 In iiij bus. de grotes emp. pro coquina, iijs. vjd. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 47 Fyrst take porke, wele thou hit sethe With otene grotes, that ben so smethe. Ibid. 20 Ote grotis. Ibid. 48 Grynd hom..With grotene. c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. ii. (Town & C. Mouse) xviii, Ane plait of grottis, and ane dische full of meill. 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 427 Fra Etrike Forest furthward..Thow beggit..cruddis, mele, grotis, grisis, and geis. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 559 The people of Rome for three hundred years together, used no other food than the groats made of common Wheat. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 556 As for the Groats, which is vsually called common or course Oat-meale, they are excellent to make porridge of all kinds. 1747 H. Glasse Cookery xvi. 146 Grotes [1796 Grits] once cut does better than Oatmeal. 1775 Romans Florida 121 To enumerate the vast variety of ways in employing this noble grain [maize] for food such as hommany, mush, groats,..would be too tedious. 1789 Trans. Soc. Arts II. 117, I think it very possible, by some such operation as making grotts, to clear away the husks. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Groats, always used along with the blood in the composition of black puddings; hence the proverb current in Lonsdale, ‘Blood without groats is nowt’, meaning that family without fortune is of no consequence. |
b. Phr. (
Sc.)
to ken one's own groats in other folks' kail: to know one's own handiwork.
to give groats for pease, to gie (one) kail o' his ain groats: to pay (a person) in his own coin.
| 1727 P. Walker Remark. Pass. 3 Worthies 64 The Church excommunicated him, and he gave them Groats for Pease, he excommunicated them. 1819 Rennie St. Patrick I. v. 76 He tell't..how keen ye war tae gie the warlocks kail o' their ain groats. 1861 Ramsay Remin. Ser. ii. 93 D'ye think, Sir, I dinna ken my ain groats in ither folk's kail? |
† 2. Naked oats.
Obs.| 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 41 There is a new sort of Oats, or Groats growing like unto whole Oatmeal, without any Hulls; they grow near the City of Durham. 1725 in Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Oats. |
3. attrib., as
groat-broth,
groat chest,
groat gruel;
† groat-sugar, coarse sugar.
| 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece i. i. 44 Give the Child *Groat-broth sometimes. |
| 1531 Durham Bursar's Mem. in Charters, etc. Priory of Finchale (Surtees 1837) Gloss. s.v. Grots. [Paid for a lock and key for] ‘le *grot-chyst’, [4d.]. |
| 1844 T. Webster Encycl. Dom. Econ. 945 Common *groat gruel—Wash three ounces of common groats, and [etc.]. |
| 1743 Lond. & Country Brew. iv. (ed. 2) 330 Boil Half a Pound of *Groat Sugar in a Quart of Water. |