- grocer
- 1255, "one who buys and sells in gross," from Anglo-Fr. grosser, from M.L. grossarius "wholesaler," lit. "dealer in quantity," from L.L. grossus "coarse (of food), great, gross" (see gross). Sense of "a merchant selling individual items of food" is 16c. Grocery "a grocer's shop" is 1828, Amer.Eng. Self-service groceries were a novelty in 1913 when a Montana, U.S., firm copyrighted the word groceteria (with the ending from cafeteria used in an un-etymological sense) to name them. The term existed through the 1920s.