Gross can mean very disgusting, like something that looks or smells nasty. In math or business, it also means the total amount before anything is taken away, like gross income before taxes.
From Old French “gros,” meaning “large, thick, coarse,” from Late Latin “grossus,” “thick, bulky.” The sense of “disgusting” grew from the idea of something coarse or crude.
The same word that means “yuck, disgusting!” also quietly works in accounting to mean “total before deductions.” Both come from the idea of something big and unrefined—either too much money to subtract from yet, or too much nastiness to ignore.
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