gratuitous (2009-04-06)

Part of Speech: adjective

Pronunciation: [græ-'tu-ê-tês]

Definition: (1) Free, obtained at no cost; (2) Unnecessary, for no reason, uncalled-for.

Usage: This word has two meanings still in wide-spread use. The first is a more articulate word for "free:" "Gratuitous rewards are never as enjoyable as those we work for." The other sense of today's word is often met in the phrase "gratuitous violence," something that seems to permeate our entertainment these days. Apparently, as long as there is a reason for it, violence is OK.

Suggested Usage: Today's word has all but lost contact with its sister, "gratuity," which now refers to a tip, so it has had to adopt a new, less graceful noun, "gratuitousness."

Etymology: "Gratuitous" was copied from Old French "gratuiteux," the direct descendant of Latin gratuit-us "free, spontaneous, voluntary." This word is based on the noun gratia "favor," the noun from gratus "pleasing." The root here obviously appears in many other English borrowings with similar meanings, such as "grateful" and "congratulate." Oddly enough, the same root that gave us these words, emerged in Celtic as Welsh "bardd," and Scottish and Irish Gaelic bàrd "bard," originally referring to a wandering minstrel. This word probably goes back to an Old Celtic compound based on *gwer- "favor" + *dho "do"= "one that does favors," that ended up as *bardo-s "poet-singer."