coarse
pronunciation
How to pronounce coarse in British English:
UK [kɔːs]
How to pronounce coarse in American English:
US [kɔːrs]
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- Adjective:
- of texture; large-grained or rough to the touch
- lacking refinement or cultivation or taste
- of low or inferior quality or value
- conspicuously and tastelessly indecent
Word Origin
- coarse
- coarse: [14] For such an everyday word, the origins of coarse are surprisingly clouded. It first appears in the forms corse or course, and meaning ‘ordinary, everyday’, which has led to speculation that it is an application of the noun course, in the sense ‘the ordinary run of things, the usual practice’; however, not all etymologists accept this. The modern spelling coarse became established in the 18th century.
- coarse (adj.)
- early 15c., cors "ordinary" (modern spelling is from late 16c.), probably adjectival use of noun cours (see course (n.)), originally referring to rough cloth for ordinary wear. Developed a sense of "rude" c. 1500 and "obscene" by 1711. Perhaps related, via metathesis, to French gros, which had a similar sense development. Related: Coarsely; coarseness.
Example
- 1. Desert sand , he replied , is rather coarse .
- 2. Larval and nymphal ticks may penetrate a coarse weave sock .
- 3. Ellen walks to wuthering heights to see hindley but she meets hareton at the gate who has become coarse and foul-mouthed under heathcliff 's tutorage .
- 4. Instead of trying to make their children happy , as they may have intended , parents can end up squeezing their children 's hopes and desires until nothing remains but the hard , coarse seeds of a cruel reality .
- 5. Scientists tested the fungi 's enzymes to measure how long they took to break down coarse , brown plant matter the size of coffee granules , and what sugars were produced .