You see it right, Fellas. We will discuss the word ‘gratis’ today.

I knew ‘gratis’ as a Dutch word when I attended a short Dutch course several months ago. At that time, I thought that ‘gratis’ had originally been brought by Dutch in colonization era and then we adopted it into Indonesian vocabulary. However, It surprised me when I found the word ‘gratis’ in English written book I am currently reading.

After I did a brief research, ‘gratis’ is originally Latin. It means kindness or thankful. You might find there are other sources, such as Collins dictionary and Merriam-webster, stated ‘gratis’ is also borrowed from the word ‘gratia’ which means favour. It is known that people started to be familiar with this word in late Middle English period (15^th century.)

As an English vocabulary, ‘gratis’ shares the same meaning to Dutch or Indonesian. ‘Gratis’ means free or without (money) charge. In addition, it can be an adverb or an adjective.

Example:

• “You don’t need to pay for this hamburger. It’s gratis.”
• “I got this bicycle gratis for winning a competition.”
• “You can get a gratis ice cream if you show this coupon to McD staff.”

Latin is well-known as a universal language, especially in science. So, you may find it in other literature, too, e.g., German, Italian, and Portuguese.

Additional source:

• http://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/latin-english-dictionary.php?lemma=GRATUS100
• en.oxforddictionaries.com

Compiled and written by @mettaa_ for @EnglishTips4u on Tuesday, April 25, 2017.