- grand (adj.) - late 14c., grant "large, big" (early 12c. in
surnames), from Anglo-French graunt and directly from Old French
grant, grand (10c.) "large, tall; grown-up; great, powerful,
important; strict, severe; extensive; numerous," from Latin
grandis "big, great; full, abundant," also "full-grown;"
figuratively "strong, powerful, weighty, severe" (perhaps
cognate with Greek brenthyomai "to swagger, be haughty"). It
supplanted magnus in Romanic languages; in English with a
special sense of "imposing." The connotations of "noble,
sublime, lofty, dignified," etc., were in Latin. As a general
term of admiration, "magnificent, splendid," from 1816. Related:
Grander; grandest. The use of grand- in compounds, with the
sense of "a generation older than, or younger than," is first
attested c.1200, in Anglo-French graund dame "grandmother."
Latin and Greek had similar usages. Grand jury is late 15c.
Grand piano from 1797. The grand tour of the principal sites of
continental Europe, as part of a gentleman's educati