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ArchivesRe: ? meaning of this name
in reply to a message by Denise Chan
"Gross" (properly "groâ") is German for "big". Grosse (pronounced GROA-suh) is a common German surname deriving from this.
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Replies
ß is the symbol Elinor meant. It's called an ess-tset and is one of the few remnants from Old German script. Groß is indeed big and "der Große" means the big/large man. große (note the lower case g) is groß plus -e, a common adjective ending in German.
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although since the spelling reform in the 90s, many German regions don't use esstsets any more.
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Not true. It's only the Swiss that kicked out the ess-tset from their alphabet, but this was long ago. In Germany there are a lot less ess-tsets after the spelling reform, but the character istself still exsists.
Andy ;—)
Andy ;—)
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It can also mean "great" when used as a title. As in Karl der Große.
Karl der Große=Karl the Great--> Charles the Magnificent--> Charlemagne.
Michelle
Karl der Große=Karl the Great--> Charles the Magnificent--> Charlemagne.
Michelle
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on second thought
I think "der Größe" is the large man. When surnames were anglicized umlauts were either dropped entirely or written as an e after the vowel, making it either Grosse or Groesse.
I think "der Größe" is the large man. When surnames were anglicized umlauts were either dropped entirely or written as an e after the vowel, making it either Grosse or Groesse.
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No umlaut with "der Große". "Größe" (with the umlaut) means "size" or "greatness".
Andy ;—)
Andy ;—)
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The "ss" symbol doesn't work and came out like "groa" - ignore it
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