(no subject)
Aug. 21st, 2007 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackHave 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-21 05:12 pm (UTC)For 'net', it says ""remaining after deductions," 1520, from earlier sense of "trim, elegant, clean, neat" (c.1300), from O.Fr. net "clean, pure, bright" (from the same source as neat, q.v.), meaning infl. by It. netto "remaining after deductions." The verb in the sense of "to gain as a net sum" is first recorded 1758."
And for 'neat' it says "1542, "clean, free from dirt," from Anglo-Fr. neit, from O.Fr. net "clear, pure," from L. nitidus "well-favored, elegant, trim," lit. "gleaming," from nitere "to shine," from PIE base *nei-/*ni- "to shine" (cf. M.Ir. niam "gleam, splendor," niamda "shining;" O.Ir. noib "holy," niab "strength;" Welsh nwyfiant "gleam, splendor"). Meaning "inclined to be tidy" is from 1577. Sense of "straight liquor" is c.1800, from meaning "unadulterated" (of wine), first attested 1579. Informal sense of "very good" first recorded 1934 in Amer.Eng.; variant neato is teenager slang, first recorded 1968. Neatnik "excessively tidy person" is from 1959 (see -nik)."
This is a good reference in that it does give different stages of the word with dates, but it may not be complete and doesn't give a straight semantic progression (if that's known for this word).
no subject
Date: 2007-08-22 05:39 pm (UTC)Actually, I *had* heard of that dictionary -- presumably from you or vyvyan. But I'd forgotten it.