groat

See also: Groat

English

groat (countable and uncountable, plural groats)

hulled grain

Possibly from Middle Dutch groot, the Old French gros Tournois (“a coin of Tours”), from Medieval Latin denarius (“coin”) grossus (“large”). Related to German Groschen.

groat (plural groats)

(archaic or historical) Any of various old coins of England and Scotland.
- 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:
  The Widdow that hath but a pan of braſſe,
  And ſcarſe a houſe to hide her head,
  Sometimes no penny to buy her bread,
  Muſt pay her Landlord many a groat,
  Or twil be puld out of her throat:
A historical English silver coin worth four English pennies, still minted as one of the set of Maundy coins.
- c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I:
  The needy groom, that never finger'd groat,
  Would make a miracle of thus much coin …
A proverbial small sum; a whit or jot.

English silver four penny coin

^ Jespersen, Otto (1909) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)‎^[1], volumes I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 10.81, page 315.