Gross (unit)
The title of this article is ambiguous. For other meanings, see Gros (disambiguation).
Gros refers to an old unit of measurement, a counting measure used to measure quantities by their number.
The gross [gʀɔs] (from French grosse; from Latin grossus; rarely, rather erroneously, also "big" or "large") is a dozen times a dozen, in decimal numbers thus 12 times 12 equals 144 units (pieces). It is also called a "small gross" or "large dozen". A "measure" is accordingly a dozen gros, thus twelve times twelve times twelve (twelve to the power of three) equals 1728 units. It is also called "large gros" or "large gros".
The "big gross" was always the gross of the wholesalers (wholesale traders), while the "small gross" was (and partly still is) used in the retail trade (retail trade). This is where the commercial term en gros (as opposed to en détail - in detail), adopted from French, comes from for the purchase or sale of goods in larger quantities.
Other designations were in
- Spain: Gruesa
- Netherlands: Gröthen
- Denmark: 12 dozen or Tylt
· 
Contemporary example of the use of the terms en gros / en detail
· .jpg)
Quantity designation "1 Gros" on a thumbtack can from Pelikan
See also
Wiktionary: Gros - meaning explanations, word origin, synonyms, translations
- Old weights and measures (German-speaking area)
- Duodecimal system
