grotty

[Paul Kusinitz]

I distinctly remember Ringo Starr employing _grody_ in the 1960s. It was the
first time I had heard it used and I searched around that day until I discovered
what it meant and where "it came from."  In the late 1980s I purchased 'New 
Dictionary of American Slang' (ed. Robert L. Chapman, Ph D., 1986). His entry
is: 

grotty (GROH dee, -tee) 1. adj (variations: groady or groaty or groddy; to the max
may be added) esp teenagers fr 1960s  Disgusting; nasty; repellent; bizarre; = GRUNGY,
SCUZZY: The magazines had covers with those grotty weirdos on them--Philadelphia 
2 noun: the introspective hedonism and political individualism of the second group...
called groddies--Trans-Action [fr grotesque; popularized by the Beatles in the 1960s;
perhaps fr Merseyside dialect]

Paul Kusinitz
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jonathon Green 
  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
  Sent: Saturday, July 06, 2002 5:52 AM
  Subject: Re: grotty


  Grotty, as in 'grotesque', was part of the mini-vocabulary ('fab', 'gear',
  and 'swinging' were among the better known coevals) that emerged in the UK
  c.1963 as what one could term the linguistic spinoff the Beatlemania. It was
  etymologised, like everything seen as stemming from the 'Fab Four', as being
  Liverpudlian in origin. Unsurprisngly the first OED cite is from what looks
  to be a novelisation (1964) of the Beatles film 'Hard Day's Night'. I have
  always assmed _grody/groady_, which seems to have come along with the early
  1980s 'Valley Girls', to be a direct descendant. (Connie Eble, in _Slang and
  Socialibility_, also suggests a Valley Girls origin for _grody_).

  Jonathon Green