(no subject)

[jack]

Have I asked this before? I know I was *going* to ask it.

How do you use "gross" and "net"? In the context of tax and weight, they are well defined, meaning "before tax" and "after tax", and "with packaging and lorries" and "without" respectively respectively.

I had gained the impression that "net" meant "resultant", and correspondingly assumed "gross" meant "before modifications".

And then I saw the weight example, and was told that "gross" simply meant the larger, the one with the extras, and "net" the one without.

Then I saw someone describe the weight example from the point of view of the people wanting the end product, when "resultant" would be a good description after all.

Etymologically it seems "gross" came from "big" and "net" came from "neat" (in latin). I'm not sure of their later path.

I'm sure I've heard "net effect" to mean "resultant effect, the effect remaining when everything else has cancelled out" and want to use it in that sense, but is that a valid usage?

I couldn't find it discussed anywhere.

Comments

[simont]

If I were a charity accepting Gift-Aided donations, so that after receiving some money from a person I could then do some paperwork and get an extra chunk from the tax office to go with it, then I think it wouldn't cause me much mental gear-clashing to describe the sum including that reclaimed tax as both "net" (it's the money I end up being able to spend on my charitable purpose) and "gross" (it's inclusive of everything it might reasonably include).