in Portuguese, grosso (<grossus) means "thick", used for size, diameter, and metaphorically to describe an unpollite person; espesso (< spissus) meand "thick" in the sense for layers, hair, liquid substances. Expected Portuguese forms would be <groxo, grouxo> and <espexo, espeixo, espixo>, both are Latinisms.
de:nsus < *dntso- ?
May grossus be related to grandis "big" or to (West)Germanic *grautaz ?
JS Lopes
espesso may a Hispanicized form from Spanish espeso, remember that Spanish had a big influence on Portuguese between 1400-1650 and I've read that quite a few Latinate forms in Portuguese arrived via Spanish --e.g. flor instead of Medieval Pg frol
Spanish has grueso "thick" but it's an everyday word
In Spanish espeso is usually applied to liquids
De: Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...>
Para: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Enviadas: Domingo, 12 de Setembro de 2010 11:54:04
Assunto: Re: [tied] Latin spissus, crassus, grossus, bassus
From: Joao S. Lopes <josimo70@...>
To: Cybalist <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sun, September 12, 2010 10:29:53 AM
Subject: [tied] Latin spissus, crassus, grossus, bassus
Is there an analogous formation in the Latin adjectives spissus "thick", crassus "thick", grossus "thick, fat, large, bulky", bassus "short"? Cou we add de:nsus "dense" to this group? Are they vernacular Latin words or loanwords from Italic, Celtic, Ligurian neighboors?
crassus < *kratsos ? akin to Greek kratos (g. krateos) < *krh2tos- > *krh2ts-o- ?
JS Lopes
***R So crassus originally meant "fleshy"? That would make sense.
Bassus wouldn't be originally Latin because of /b-/ but it may be P-Italic, Ligurian or Celtic, etc.
We discussed grossus about 10 years ago or so and there should be something useful in the archives.