Jed, It is so much fun to see how words have maybe remained the same,
but the meanings have shifted a lot or a little. In one of the lessons
I came across "graut" which means porridge. In American English grout is
the sort of cement stuff (with latex, actually) you put in the crevices
between tiles for flooring or countertops. The consistency of the grout
is certainly porridge-like.
In German there is Gruetze, a porridge of sorts, which would be grits in
American Southern, except that grits are maize. Then there are groats
in English, which seem to be only applied to buckwheat (not a wheat at
all, of course) ground a certain way.
Grace
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