"grinded"?

absitinvidia

A bit of a wallflower
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
1,034
Reaction score
159
Location
Earth-that-was
Over the past couple of years, I've seen "grinded" sneak in as the past tense of "grind" when it's used in a sexual sense ("We grinded our hips together.")

My dictionary indicates that while such a form does exist, it is obsolete. Does anyone have any idea how this is making its way into published fiction so frequently? Should it be stetted or changed to "ground"?
 

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
14,205
Reaction score
884
Location
Edmonton, Canada
It only makes sense in the sexual manner. Ground = pulverise somehow. Grinded = to rub against hard, but without that uncomfortable imagery of pulverising.

Could be totally wrong.
 

lorna_w

Hybrid Grump
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Messages
3,262
Reaction score
3,236
I looked three places and no one gives "grinded" as legitimate pp of "grind." However, grounden, though archaic, is an option. "High on X, we jumped onto the dance floor and grounden to the music." I like it. ;)
 

absitinvidia

A bit of a wallflower
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
1,034
Reaction score
159
Location
Earth-that-was
As I said, "grinded" is an obsolete past tense. It appears in the OED and in some older dictionaries and appears to have dropped out of popular usage some 150 years ago.

I've seen it in books from a number of publishers, mostly romance, both print and ebook publishers. It sets my teeth on edge, but as I said, it appears to be making a comeback and I'm wondering if house style at some places is to stet it.


ETA: I also found a reference to The Monastery, by Sir Walter Scott, in which appear the phrases "he grinded his teeth" and "bring their corn to be grinded at the mill."
 
Last edited:

ComicBent

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 7, 2005
Messages
347
Reaction score
28
Location
Tennessee
Interesting

Merriam-Webster lists "grinded" as an archaic past tense (you already knew this, I realize).

"Archaic" usually means even more out of date than "obsolete."

Somebody somewhere used "grinded" in the special sense that you have described, and other people became imitators. It was an idiotic use, however, and nobody who really cares about grammar and language would adopt this form of the verb except in a deliberately archaic context. I wonder if it first appeared in some "bodice ripper" romance about a rogue and a virgin in the 17th century.

I suspect that someone decided to use this unfamiliar form as a way to detach the verb "grind" from its traditional associations.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) used "drinked" instead of "drank" in Gulliver's Travels. My grandmother, born about 1900 in the American south, used the same verb form.
 

BigWords

Geekzilla
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
10,670
Reaction score
2,360
Location
inside the machine
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) used "drinked" instead of "drank" in Gulliver's Travels. My grandmother, born about 1900 in the American south, used the same verb form.

I don't hold novels of a certain vintage to the same standards of a modern novel - if the word "grinded" (or, indeed, "drinked") is present in a title which has just been released, I'd immediately think that the author was either deliberately indicating a lack of education, head injury or insanity on the speakers part, or was unaware of the correct usage. Most often I would go to straight to the thought that it was incorrect usage...
 

frimble3

Heckuva good sport
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
11,574
Reaction score
6,396
Location
west coast, canada
ETA: I also found a reference to The Monastery, by Sir Walter Scott, in which appear the phrases "he grinded his teeth" and "bring their corn to be grinded at the mill."
This is the variation that makes sense, in a way, as it refers to something being processed by a 'grinder' rather than just rubbed on something.
 

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
14,205
Reaction score
884
Location
Edmonton, Canada
This is the variation that makes sense, in a way, as it refers to something being processed by a 'grinder' rather than just rubbed on something.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is the dance not called the "Grind"?
 

Jamesaritchie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
27,863
Reaction score
2,311
Forget "grinded". Even if it was once correct, it now makes the writer sound illiterate.
 

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
8,049
Reaction score
770
Location
Clearlake Park, CA
Website
www.strokingthepen.com
Over the past couple of years, I've seen "grinded" sneak in as the past tense of "grind" when it's used in a sexual sense ("We grinded our hips together.")

My dictionary indicates that while such a form does exist, it is obsolete. Does anyone have any idea how this is making its way into published fiction so frequently? Should it be stetted or changed to "ground"?

Changed to ground. Grinded sounds plain silly.
 

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 9, 2005
Messages
16,768
Reaction score
4,663
Location
Scotland
"Mabel and I grinded our hips together," sounds like part of a 1970's The Two Ronnies character sketch to me. :snoopy:
 

AnWulf

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
Messages
194
Reaction score
17
Location
Tungol (Planet) Earþ
Website
lupussolusluna.blogspot.com
archaic/obsolete

Merriam-Webster lists "grinded" as an archaic past tense (you already knew this, I realize).

"Archaic" usually means even more out of date than "obsolete."

The wiktionary way, not that they truly stick to it, is that archaic means that the meaning is old but likely understood by the reader.

Obsolete means that the meaning is no longer likely understood by the reader.

Thus a term may be old and no longer noted but still understood like 'thee' which makes it archaic. OTOH a slang term in the '20s or '30s is less likely to be understood like "moll" which would make it "dated" or "obsolete".
 

caliph

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 23, 2012
Messages
102
Reaction score
7
I'd go with whatever sounds better to you. People probably want to see what happens post-grinding anyway.
 

Pinkclaw

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
68
Reaction score
3
Location
Rio de Janeiro
I was just thinking about grinded today, good to see I'm not the only onw that have found this on books.
 

amergina

Pittsburgh Strong
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 20, 2007
Messages
15,599
Reaction score
2,471
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Website
www.annazabo.com
If I saw it in a manuscript I was editing, I'd strongly suggest to the author to change it to ground, unless there was an extraordinary compelling reason to use grinded.

As, I suspect, would the copy editor. But an author can always Stet...